The company didn't provide any metrics for Apple News+, its digital newsstand that charges $10 a month for access to hundreds of magazines and a smaller group of newspapers. The lack of disclosure may indicate that Apple is struggling to boost subscriptions for the premium service, which it launched last year.

The most recent press reports claim Apple News+ hasn't expanded its base of paid readers since signing up 200,000 subscribers in the weeks after its rollout in March. That's minuscule for a company that's accustomed to scaling up businesses among hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.

Apple may need to bundle the service with other offerings, like Apple TV+ and Apple Music, to boost the value proposition for readers.

Also, Apple should develop a text-reading technology for its Siri voice assistant to let people listen to magazine and newspaper articles while they do other activities, as podcasts allow them to do.

Arch-rival Google is working on such a technology for Google Assistant, the search giant's voice-powered companion. This week, Google demonstrated the technology at CES, the consumer electronics exhibition in Las Vegas.

By saying "Hey, Google, read this page" to a device that runs Google Assistant, a consumer can listen to an article instead of reading it. The search giant is working to make Google Assistant's voice sound less robotic, making it easier to tolerate while listening for longer periods of time.