Apple Has Mistakenly Been Underestimating the Users of Its News App

Apple says its been mistakenly underestimating the number of readers using its News app, reports the WSJ.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified.

“We’re in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality,” Cue said. “We don’t know what the right number is,” but he noted that it was better to undercount traffic than overcount.


Despite the bug Cue said Apple is pleased with its News app thus far and has received mostly positive feedback from publishers. Cue added that usage has "scaled very fast…but it doesn’t mean we don’t all want more."

Even with the misreported number of readers, publishers say that they expected more traffic from Apple News. "The traffic has been modest relative to the enormous install base of iOS devices," said Julie Hansen, president of Business Insider.

So far Apple reports that 40 million people have used the News app to date but it didn't disclose how many readers use the app regularly.

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