Apple made some interesting comments today during their Q2 Financial Results regarding their plans with the iPhone and Apple TV in the coming months.
The webcast was opened with a prepared statement, where Apple describes how they are planning to use subscription based accounting to document the income from the iPhone as well as the Apple TV. This means that income from these devices will be spread over a 24 month period from an accounting perspective.
Their reasoning behind the shift was due to plans to continue to develop new software features and "entirely new applications" and incorporate them into the iPhone. "We want to provide many of these new features and applications at no additional charge to users."
Similarly, they stated that periodic updates and enhancements will be provided at no charge to Apple TV customers.
Again, this has no effect on customer prices or purchasing and simply reflects a shift in internal accounting at Apple, but the plan for future updates and "new applications" for the iPhone to be delivered as free updates was somewhat revealing.
