So Apple just made planning your next rager a paid service. Because, of course, they did. Meet Apple Invites, the latest installment in Tim Cook’s masterclass on how to nickel-and-dime 2.35 billion active devices into submission. It’s an event invitation app—like Evite, or more recently, Partiful—but with one key difference: you need a paid iCloud+ subscription just to send an invite. Yes sir, Apple has officially monetized friendship (again).

(Source: Giphy) 

Of course, on the surface this looks like making the best-event planning app available—but it’s much much more about locking people into Apple’s walled garden and juicing its Services division, which, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is now Apple’s second-biggest business after the iPhone. For instance, in the last quarter alone, Services pulled in $25 billion with a 74% gross margin—which is another tall tale sign of Apple “squeezing customers for pure profit without having to manufacture anything.” 

See, Apple’s entire playbook is to make sure that once you’re in their ecosystem, you can’t leave. Your photos? iCloud. Your music? Apple Music. Your subscriptions? Apple One. Your browser? Safari, because they get a cut of Google’s search revenue. Now, they’ve come for your party invitations.

(Source: CNBC) 

The biggest loser of this power move? Partiful—the Gen Z darling of event invites, just got curb-stomped by the biggest tech company on the planet. Partiful spent four years building a sleek, social-friendly invite system, only to wake up and find that Apple had copied their entire business model and baked it directly into iOS.

The worst part? Apple doesn’t even have to compete. They just force-feed their apps to every iPhone user through a software update. No downloads. No onboarding. Just instant market domination. Partiful, meanwhile, is stuck begging people to visit their website—which is now presumably irrelevant. 

(Source: X) 

Clearly, this is the new Apple business model: find something people already do for free, slap a Apple logo on it, and charge a subscription fee. Hell, at this rate, Airplane Mode is about to cost us $1.99 a month by 2026 LOL. Still though, Wall Street loves subscription revenue, and Apple knows it. Hardware sales are cyclical—people don’t upgrade their iPhones every year. But subscriptions? Those are recurring, predictable, and keep the cash flowing even when iPhone sales slow down.

Of course, this is just another example as to why Apple is the king of the hill when it comes to tech. They’re the most valuable company for a reason—and it’s because they don’t compete, they eliminate. Apple doesn’t need to make the best products anymore. They just need to keep you inside the ecosystem long enough that leaving becomes impossible. Once your photos, music, subscriptions, and now even your social life are tied to Apple’s walled garden, you’ll never leave.

(Source: Giphy) 

And honestly? That’s the real genius of Tim Cook. He’s not selling hardware—he’s selling a lifetime subscription to Apple itself. So yeah, while this technically isn’t breaking news—but more of a monetization standpoint—it’s poweful. And it just continues to show us all that Apple, well… they’re the Diddy of Tech—it’s their white party and we’re all just living in it. 

For now, keep an eye on Apple and place your bets accordingly. As always, stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

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Stocks.News holds positions in Apple and Google as mentioned in the article.