NEW DELHI: Apple Inc’s efforts to ramp up sales in the Indian market may find better traction going forward following its foray into the Over-The-Top (OTT) services segment.
Analysts say that while the Apple TV+ service is priced at an extremely competitive Rs 100 per month in India, it might not pose a huge threat to OTT incumbents like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar even though the service is priced far lower than its competitors. Netflix’s recently announced low-cost plan for mobiles, for instance, is still priced at Rs 199 per month, with other packages beginning from Rs 499 per month.
Apple’s problem is the low India user base for its iOS devices, the country being a predominantly Android device market. “Apple TV+ will work only on iOS devices. With such low penetration of Apple devices in India, the impact will be minimal,” noted Abhneesh Roy, SVP, Edelweiss Securities.
But, Apple TV+ and other services could serve to drive the tech giant’s flagging sales and boost the number of iOS users in the country.. “Apple TV+ is a part of Apple’s evolution from a hardware-only positioning to Hardware+ company,” observed Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, TechARC, “It will get new people on board, who will experience Apple through a service first rather than a device.”
New services like Apple TV+ are also expected to increase Apple’s wallet share among iOS users who have subscriptions with incumbent OTT platforms. “I expect the existing Apple ecosystem users to be among early adoptors,” Kawoosa said, pointing out that if just 1 per cent of around 11 million iPhone users in India opted for Apple TV+, “it would mean Rs 130 crore additional revenue annually”. However, how successful Apple is in leveraging its OTT service in India will depend on how strong it's content game is.