Apple Special Event 2019 has just concluded, giving us a few talk points to consider in the coming days. While the hardware show was evidently centrestage, Apple also dabbled a fair bit with services, officially launching Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. While the former joins the hotly contested video streaming industry with more sourced and original content, the latter is an early entrant in the game streaming/sharing industry, that is only slated to grow. Both the services are coming to India, and both are priced very competitively at Rs 99 per month.
Beginning with Apple TV+, the platform can be accessed on all Apple devices, as well as the Amazon Fire TV (Amazon and Apple are partners here), as well as a few other leading televisions such as those by Samsung and Sony. Apple is investing gradually in original content, with the highlight of the evening being in The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston in a TV show for the first time after Friends, and Jason Momoa in 'See', whose trailer was premiered tonight. At Rs 99 per month, Apple TV+ aims to bring the Apple brand to more Indian households, and at Rs 99 per month, it is easily the most affordable of the lot. For reference, Netflix's standard plans cost much higher, and even Amazon Prime Video, which was hailed for being very affordable, costs Rs 129 per month in its monthly plan. However, given that the competing services offer plenty of Indian content to cater to the audience beyond Tier I Indian cities, it remains to be seen how far Apple succeeds in reaching to more people in India.
With Apple Arcade, Apple is teaming up with leading game developers such as Konami, Capcom and Annapurna Interactive, to bring paid games into a subscription umbrella. Apple Arcade can be accessed directly within the App Store, and offers increasingly impressive game titles to lure more individuals into smartphone gaming. Arcade is on offer with a family plan, meaning that at Rs 99 per month, users can share their gaming subscriptions with those in the family network.
It remains to be seen if the services manage the intention of bringing a higher market share for Apple in India. With the iPhone 11 also premiering at a lower price than the iPhone XR in India, it remains to be seen how Apple's recent push for promoting services in the country are reflecting in India as well.
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