Apple (AAPL) has released a new app for creating party invitations and sending them digitally to contacts.
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With the app, called “Apple Invites,” users can create invitations to birthdays, graduations, and housewarming parties, and then manage RSVPs and guest lists through the app. Apple Invites is also available on the internet. While people don’t require an iPhone to use the app and RSVP to invitations they receive, they will need a paid iCloud+ subscription to create and send invites to their contacts.
The new app is the latest example of Apple’s push into services and drive for recurring revenue. The Apple Invites app and its paid subscription is being marketed to the company’s installed base of 2.35 billion active devices. Apple’s Services division has grown to become the company’s second largest business unit behind only the iPhone, reporting $25 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone.
Driving Profits
Services has become a big profit driver at Apple, with a gross margin of 74%. The growth of Apple’s services division is helping the company’s overall margins expand after years of remaining largely flat. Apple’s services business also includes its search deal with Alphabet (GOOGL), the Apple Pay feature, and device warranties.
An iCloud+ subscription starts at $1 per month for 50 GB of storage, and is included in many of Apple’s subscription bundles. Those bundles can cost up to a $38 a month for a package that includes Apple’s streaming service and Apple Music. Invites also includes Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Apple Intelligence can generate images for invites and help write text.
Apple said recently that it has one billion subscribers worldwide. AAPL stock has risen 24% over the last 12 months.
Is AAPL Stock a Buy?
Apple stock has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 32 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 18 Buy, 10 Hold, and four Sell recommendations issued in the last three months. The average AAPL price target of $251.63 implies 8.40% upside from current levels.
