Apple makes smart services push to boost its reach in India

Apple has teamed up with India’s Bharti Airtel to offer the latter companies premium customers free access to Apple Music and Apple TV. This is a brilliant move, let me explain why.

What’s happening with India’s mobile company?

First the story. Apple TV+ will come bundled with premium Airtel WiFi and Postpaid plans, while Apple Music will be made available to replace Airtel’s Wynk music app, which is being closed down.

If you aren’t in India then you may not know that Airtel is India’s second largest mobile operator with 281 million subscribers. You may also not be fully aware of the extent of India’s media and entertainment market, which is worth $28 billion.

Consider all that and then reflect on Apple’s rapidly growing marketshare in India, where it now holds 19% of the entire smartphone market, by value. That means the deal to offer TV and Music to wealthier Airtel customers will be popular among many thousands in India.

What this may mean

That’s good for Apple’s services market, but also good in terms of building even more engaged relationships with India’s Apple consumers. Apple is growing fast in India.

It achieved 38% growth there in the last year and is seeing double-digit growth in iPhone adoption there. Its continued investment in manufacturing there has already become legendary, making Apple products means the company is effectively India’s fastest growing manufacturer in 50-years.

So, we have a company that is generating mass recruitment in India that is also making products in India and is winning hearts and minds in India.

Apple has now tied up a services deal that means Music and TV+ will be experienced by millions of subscribers across India.

That doesn’t stop there, of course, as India has a highly evolved community structure, which makes it very likely large numbers of non-subscribers will also be exposed to Apple’s great content.

That’s going to make for even more brand recognition and should help the company consolidate the gains it has made in India so far, while laying the ground for more in future.

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