A man takes a photograph using his iPhone of members of the public entering a new Apple store during the official opening in Beijing. Reuters/David Gray
Apple, riding the surge in the popularity of its iPods, iPhones and iPads, has launched its popular online content store for
India in a move that could shake up online commerce.
Though Apple did not include the price range for songs available for download in its statement, a quick browse-through revealed that Hindi movie songs were available in a price range of Rs.7 to Rs.15. HD movies are priced between Rs.290 and Rs.490 per download.
Typically, a song could cost 99 cents on iTune - that’s about Rs.50.
Significantly, all music and movies on the iTunes store are copyrighted and purchases are legal.
India has a plethora of websites that offer music and movie downloads for free, but most content is pirated.
“Customers can choose from over 20 million songs. Movie fans can choose from a wide selection of films available for rent or purchase from the iTunes store,” Apple said.
Apple did not announce the titles and studios it has tied up with but its store had titles from all major companies such as T-Series, Yashraj Music, Saregama and Sony Music.
The iTunes store was also launched across 52 countries that included Russia, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia, among others.