Apple Inc. has teamed up with Bharti Airtel, the nation’s second-largest cellular operator, to increase its footprint in the rapidly expanding content industry in India.
This collaboration is expected to increase the number of users for Apple Music and Apple TV+, the company’s streaming services, in a market where the company’s media offerings have lagged behind competitors like Spotify and Disney.
Apple has primarily concentrated on manufacturing in India to diversify its supply chain, but it now seems that the tech giant’s content and services strategy is centered around this country.
Apple intends to access a large and hitherto unreachable client base by incorporating its music and video streaming services with Airtel’s offerings. With 281 million customers, Bharti Airtel has a sizable following that might give Apple’s expansion in the area the much-needed push.
Industry observers see this as a significant step forward for Apple in India. During his speech on Apple’s strategic pivot, Nitesh Kripalani, the former head of Amazon Prime Video in India, said that the business is using a tried-and-true method to gain traction in important areas.
By providing its services to Airtel’s premium consumers at no extra cost, Apple hopes to consolidate its position in the fiercely competitive Indian digital content market.
While Apple has seen some success in expanding its smartphone market share in India — from 2% in 2019 to 6% today — its streaming services have yet to make a significant impact.
The collaboration with Airtel may aid in closing this disparity, particularly as it is consistent with similar tactics that Apple has used in other regions, such as the US, where it has integrated Apple TV+ into Comcast’s streaming packages and packaged Apple Music with Verizon plans.
In India, Wynk, the music app from Airtel, which provides ad-free streaming to almost 7 million postpaid users, will soon incorporate Apple Music.
Only a small portion of the app’s users are actively utilising the service, indicating that the app has not been able to engage its user base.
Apple Music, which offers a wider range of content, including Bollywood and regional-language music, is expected to replace Wynk as it winds down. Despite this, the breadth of Apple Music’s catalogue still lags below that of Spotify.
Based on data from industry association FICCI and consultants EY available to BrandSpur digital news platform, the music streaming sector in India is still in its early stages, with just 7.5 million of the 185 million streaming users in the country subscribed for services last year.
However, due to reports that Airtel will pay Apple a per-user price that is less than the current rates for Apple TV+ and Apple Music in India, Apple’s cooperation with the telecom giant could hasten the uptake of paid streaming services.
