Apple’s partnership with India’s second-biggest telecoms firm will give the iPhone maker a sorely needed boost in a content market where it lags far behind the likes of Spotify, opens new tab and Walt Disney, opens new tab.
The U.S. technology giant, working to boost revenue globally from services including apps, payments and media, is set to offer free music and video streaming to many of Bharti Airtel’s, opens new tab 281 million customers.
The deal is likely to greatly expand the user base for Apple TV+ and Apple Music in a country where Apple has long emphasised the manufacturing side of business to diversify its supply chain beyond China.
Apple builds many of its iPhones in India yet its handsets make up just 6% of the country’s 690 million smartphones, versus around 2% in 2019, Counterpoint Research data showed.
“The move speaks of Apple’s ambitions for India,” said Nitesh Kripalani, former head of Amazon Prime Video in India. “The strategy is a time-tested method to catapult presence in markets it considers important.”
In the U.S., Apple has offered Apple Music for free via some Verizon, opens new tab mobile data plans since 2019, and its Apple TV+ will feature in a Comcast, opens new tab streaming bundle from May.
In India, Apple Music will become available to premium users of Airtel’s Wynk music app, which will eventually close.
Postpaid Airtel contracts give about 7 million subscribers access to the ad-free version of Wynk but only a small fraction use it, said a telecom industry source who declined to be named as the figures are confidential.
Some who waited hours online to get tickets for the band’s long-awaited reunion tour were left frustrated by soaring costs.
Neither Apple nor Airtel responded to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.
Apple Music is more tailored to the Indian market compared with the mostly English Apple TV+ with content including Bollywood and regional-language songs, though its library is smaller than Spotify’s, said Counterpoint co-founder Neil Shah.
Spotify has some 3 million paid users in India, Gaana has 1.4 million, Wynk 500,000 and Apple Music 200,000, said an Indian music industry source who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to share estimates publicly.
