Apple is waking up to the harsh realities of the world. Perhaps the fall in stock price has helped. There is simply more competition and Apple has to adjust to it.
In a major move, Apple is offering some popular songs for just 29 cents on iTunes. This represents a 70% discount from the previous price. However, to take advantage of the 70% discount you need an Indian credit card.
Apple now seems awake to the potential of over a billion Indians. To date Apple has focused on China, but largely ignored India. Low cost iTunes is the center piece of Apple’s new strategy for emerging markets.
I have been writing for a while that Apple has mostly saturated the developed markets and Apple does not have appropriately priced products for emerging markets.
Until Apple figures out low cost iPhones for emerging markets, discounts at iTunes is an excellent strategy. At present Apple ranks 10th in smartphone sales in India. Google Android based phones are the most popular. Research In Motion‘s BlackBerry has not completely fallen out of favor like in the United States. Nokia is making great strides with its Microsoft Windows based low cost phones specifically designed for emerging markets. If consumers get used to iTunes, they will be primed to buy a new low cost iPhone whenever Apple introduces it….Read more at Forbes
