We couldn’t be happier to see Apple going all out to capture the Indian market by launching Apple Music in India at less than 20% of US price and reducing apps costs to as low as 10 rupees.
Let’s start with the Apps
At launch, the Indian App Store pricing worked on US dollars and the lowest possible cost of a paid app was $0.99. In October 2012, these prices were shifted to Indian Rupees. However, this was just a showcase change since the minimum cost of an app remained at 60 Rupees. That’s how things stayed until last month.
Apple finally realised that for its price-sensitive Indian market, 60 Rupees didn’t have the same pocket-change ring as 1 Dollar in the US. So, in July this year, Apple India reduced the base price of a paid app to Rs. 10.
The surge in popularity of apps that adopted this new pricing is a testimony to the merit of this new model. It also reinforces the age old market principle of ‘better price, better sales’. Selling 100 apps at 10 rupees is better than 10 apps at 60 rupees. It was always simple math, Apple!
Apple Music – The big surprise
While restructuring app prices was an afterthought, Apple made a bold entry with it’s music streaming service Apple Music in India. Among the 100 launch countries, India got the third lowest costing. Monthly individual plans cost only Rs. 120 (compared to $9.99 in US) and family plans cost Rs. 190 (compared to $14.99 in US). That’s less than one-fifth of the pricing in the home country !
As the service is still in its free trial period of 3 months (you can sign-up here), the success of this aggressive pricing is unknown. Whatever be the fate, Apple has to be credited for giving itself the best chance of seducing Indian music lovers.
There’s even more
The love doesn’t stop here. Apple recently slashed the price of Apple TV as well. It now costs Rs. 5900, which is more than 2000 rupees lesser than its previous selling price. These cost reductions are coming as happy surprises for Apple fanboys in India.
Now we wonder how far will Apple India go to delight us? iPhone under Rs. 40,000? Never say never.