Thoughts on iTunes Store expansion to more counties

Posted by Sanjaychandra on December 4, 2012 12:19 pm 6

As you might recall , iTunes Store has expanded to so many countries this year and recently , it expanded to 55 more countries making it one of the most widely available music store in the world.

The list of countries in which iTunes store was launched recently , includes my country (India) as well.When i first heard the rumors , I wasn't excited because I expected Apple to keep high prices for movies and music.

But they made aggressive pricing instead . If you compare iTunes store to local digital music retailers , iTunes would look impressive (because its from Apple after all , right ? and nobody expected such aggressive pricing from them in general).

Some Examples (comparing Indian Vs US Store rates) :

Taylor Swift's RED album :

US Store - $14.99

India Store - INR 250 (~ $4.57)

A HD Movie :

US Store - $19.99

India Store - INR 490 (~$8.96)

So pricing is very aggressive and other retailers who digitally sell music here , also have approximately same prices for music and movies price is better than a typical Blu-Ray which costs INR 650 (~$11.8).

What does this mean ? This hints that Apple is trying to focus on developing countries and high populous countries like India (they already focused on China).

And This also hints that , Apple will reach lower markets using devices like iPhone 4 , similarly how some companies did with 3GS.I also expect them to push current iPad Mini next year with aggressive Pricing.

Currently content in iTunes Store is very limited but i think , it will get better and better as time goes but finally , its good move by Apple because Amazon or Playstore are not available in many countries (ofc Appstore is present in lot of countries from long back and also Playstore is available for apps in many countries as well but Playstore's music , movies etc are available in limited countries)