With Apple pushing its roots deeper into Indian market, iPhone sales have shown more than 50 percent growth in the nation during this year. This growing demand has motivated Apple. Tim Cook, Apple CEO said, “We believe we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this large and growing market opportunity.”
India on the other hand, has been witnessing the advent of 4G networks. And of all of them, it is undoubtedly Reliance Jio right now, which has literally took the Indian telecom industry by storm. Re-affirming that very fact, Cook had even met top Reliance executives for a long-term partnership a few months back during his visit to India.
Looks like that talked about deal, is now sealed.
Apple has partnered with the Reliance Jio! All iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners who opt with Reliance Jio network, will get a year of data services free of cost. And, Tim Cook seems to be certain that this deal will further boost sales in India. He added,
Reliance is offering a free year of service to purchasers of new iPhones and we’re partnering with them to ensure great iPhone performance on their network.
According to Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst with Counterpoint Research,
Apple’s bet to lure customers to buy an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus with free data isn’t going to be of much help. An average user buying the iPhone 7 will be less concerned about the data plans.
Pathak also added that the unavailability of 4G LTE network wasn’t preventing people from purchasing an iPhone — it was price. Making the argument even more meaningful he added,
Growth of sales that Apple has seen in India is also because of a ‘low-cost’ iPhone. Nearly half of the iPhones Apple sold in India in the financial year it just closed were four-year-old iPhone 5s models The company’s recently launched smartphones, which are more expensive aren’t faring that well.
Well, one would obviously not buy an iphone 7 that will cost them a fortune just to seek free data services for a year, which Reliance is already offering for the next three months to all its users! With the introduction of 4G only network, Reliance has certainly lured the smart phone companies by offering free data services to its users. Earlier this month, Samsung had announced that all the smart phones that it will now introduce in India will be 4G enabled, even the ones at entry level.
Not too sure about the growth in sales of Apple and Samsung, but with a large number of Indian population now switching to Jio, Reliance is surely killing two birds with one stone!
