Apple SVP of Services Eddy Cue has been with Apple for 38 out of Apple's 50 years, and he's out celebrating the anniversary with an interview where he shares familiar anecdotes about his time there.
It is Apple's 50th anniversary, so there has been a lot of celebration and press tours going on. Paul McCartney may have concluded the concert series, but Apple executives have been making the rounds on Wednesday.
The SVP of Services, Eddy Cue, appeared on the internet talk show/podcast TBPN to discuss some of Apple's history. While he didn't share anything revolutionary, it was a peek inside of how he thinks and feels about Apple today after 38 years of work there.
Apple was only just beginning to get its name out there when Eddy Cue decided to join the company. The legend of Steve Jobs had already begun, but Cue was driven by the idea that Apple was enabling users to do amazing things.
He discussed the beginnings of the Apple online store and how prior to that customers had to go through various sales channels. The iMac was able to draw in $1 million in revenue in its first day, in part thanks to the Apple online store.
Cue talks iTunes
Cue is Apple's Services chief, and he says services started as a hobby in the early days of the internet. Cloud storage and email were its beginning, but iPod plus iTunes was the true launch of Apple as a services company.
The iTunes Store launched with $0.99 songs
Getting iTunes off the ground was a challenge when working with music labels. Cue shared that Apple's relationship with artists helped garner trust, but getting the labels onboard was a process.
"They told us to go pound sand," Cue said of music labels when presented with the $0.99 a song concept.
Two keys to the $0.99 price point — consistency and avoiding the credit card fee. Customers were more likely to just hit the buy button when every song was the same price, and Apple was able to ensure credit card fees weren't a problem by bundling multiple purchases over a few hours into one transaction.
Overall, it meant easy access to songs and purchases without overwhelming the user's credit card statement. Also, Apple didn't have to deal with as many fees.
Apple managed to sell one million songs in the first six days of iTunes. That far exceeded the music industry's expectations at the time, which was closer to one million songs a month for six months.
Cue looks ahead
The conversation on the talk show turned to modern Apple and how Cue feels about the company today. He was asked about Steve Jobs and how he compares to Tim Cook.
Cue sees Cook and Jobs as being hardworking individuals that focus on Apple and family
Cue shared that the question isn't what's different between Cook and Jobs, but what's the same. For both, Apple and family were their drive, and Cue doesn't know any other people that worked harder.
There was a brief conversation about F1 at the end where Cue shared that 30% of the people watching F1 are using multiview. The hosts joked about Apple getting into sim racing games on Apple Vision Pro, to which Cue reminded them that iRacing was coming to the platform.
As the day comes to a close, Apple will end its 50th anniversary without any special announcements or products for consumers. Tomorrow, it's back to looking ahead to the future with WWDC right around the corner.
