Apple TV+ Apple TV interfaceSource: Joseph Keller/iMore

What you need to know

  • A Wall Street analyst says Apple TV+ uptake may have been surprisingly low.
  • Toni Sacconaghi estimates that fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have taken the year's free trial.
  • That would put figures below 10 million subscribers.

Wall Street analyst Toni Sacconaghi has estimated that fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have taken advantage of Apple TV+'s year's free subscription, putting total subscription figures below 10 million.

According to Investor's Business Daily:

Less than 10% of Apple (AAPL) customers eligible for 12-month free trials of the company's Apple TV+ streaming video service have taken the offer, a Wall Street analyst said Monday.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that under 10 million Apple customers have accepted the free trial offer. He calls that a "surprisingly low take rate."

Apple customers are eligible for one year of free service to Apple TV+ if they bought a new iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, iPod Touch or Apple TV set-top box after Sept. 10. Other customers pay $4.99 a month for the service.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the Bernstein report.

Apparently, Sacconaghi's prediction is based on Apple's results for Q1 2020. He believes that Apple has not effectively promoted the video service to its larger user base. He also states that it might be deliberately scaling its promotions to "slowly mitigate the negative accounting impact of its early ramp", and finally, he believes that the service may not be resonating with customers.

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The report is in stark contrast to a recent WSJ report, which included estimates that Apple TV+ may have north of 30 million subscribers. As is per usual with these sorts of estimates, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle.