Two companies in tech stole the show this week: tech giant Apple (AAPL +0.11%) and ride-sharing company Lyft (LYFT +0.34%). Apple launched new services and surprisingly canceled its AirPower wireless charging mat, while Lyft's stock began trading on the Nasdaq to much fanfare.
Here's a look at each of these stories.
Tim Cook kicks off Apple's March 2019 event. Image source: Apple.
Apple announces new services
In an event Monday at Apple's Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, Apple unveiled four new services:
- A subscription-based TV service with original content called Apple TV+.
- A subscription service for its Apple News app named Apple News+, giving subscribers access to more than 300 magazines and some prominent newspapers.
- An Apple-branded credit card, built to take full advantage of iPhone technology, Apple Pay, and the Wallet app.
- A gaming service featuring a collection of ad-free iOS games.
The services-focused event highlights Apple's push to continue growing its services business while becoming less dependent on the iPhone.
Check out the latest earnings call transcripts for Apple and other companies we cover.
Apple kills the AirPower
On Friday, Apple made the surprise announcement that it was canceling its plans to release AirPower, which it first announced in 2017 and had been planning to launch last year. The news comes after a significant delay for the wireless charging mat.
"After much effort, we've concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards, and we have canceled the project," said Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio, in a statement to TechCrunch on Friday, "We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward."
While Apple's lack of a charging solution is a missed opportunity for the company's fast-growing wearables, home, and accessories product segment, the bigger problem is Apple's disappointing execution on an important new technology.
Lyft goes public
Finally, there's Lyft's initial public offering on Friday.
Hype for the IPO was evident before shares went public, as the company increased the expected range for its IPO share price from between $62 and $68 to between $70 and $72 on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, Lyft priced the IPO at $72, the high end of its revised range.
Shares surged on the first day of trading, ending the trading day up 8.7% at $78.29. The offering helped Lyft raise $2.3 billion.
Lyft's revenue is growing rapidly. In 2018, revenue was $2.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 2017. Profitability, however, appears to be a long way out. Lyft lost $911 million in 2018 -- more than its $688 million loss in 2017.
