Apple’s App Store and other services launch in dozens more countries

[Windows9]

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Apple is launching its major services, including the App Store, iCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Arcade, in 20 new countries today. In addition, Apple Music is expanding to 52 new countries. The expansion means that the App Store in particular is now available in a total of 175 countries and regions.

The list of places Apple’s services are expanding to is diverse, and includes countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Oceana. Here’s Apple’s list of the countries that its App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are expanding to:

Africa: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Libya, Morocco, Rwanda, and Zambia.

Asia-Pacific: Maldives and Myanmar.

Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.

Middle East: Afghanistan (excluding Apple Music) and Iraq.

Oceania: Nauru (excluding Apple Music), Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Here’s the list of places where Apple Music is launching:

Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Chad, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Tunisia.

Asia-Pacific: Bhutan.

Europe: Croatia, Iceland, and North Macedonia.

Latin America and the Caribbean: the Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos, and Uruguay.

Middle East: Kuwait, Qatar, and Yemen.

Oceania: Solomon Islands.

It’s a big list, but it’s an important one for Apple to grow as more and more of its revenue comes from selling services alongside its hardware. In its last earnings release, Apple CEO Tim Cook boasted that its services division had set an all-time revenue record for the company, following the launch of Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade late last year.

source : The verge

 

I'm surprised the app store and apple music wasn't available in these countries in the first place 

[Applefreak]

With the expansions come other issues. First money, in some of those countries a 9.99 app is a significant amount of money. Second, internet speeds have not caught up so downloading and uploading into the cloud is kind of a no go. Third, even if bandwidth is available but money is not, it is unethical to push people into apple's super expensive ecosystem, but I guess that's apple these days. 

[Windows9]

Just now, Applefreak said:

it is unethical to push people into apple's super expensive ecosystem

They could just lower their prices. I mean only 1% of the people will actually bother to go to another country to buy it for cheaper and it will boost their sales 5% anyways

[Applefreak]

I am sure they can do that for some services, for music this will be difficult because of fixed payments to labels and artists. I am not familiar with the contracts involved here but I guess it is x amount of users at x rate. Same goes for some apps and games too. Also I am pretty sure that people who can afford those services, will likely be already using them through a vpn. So the client base will not increase by that much. 

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, Applefreak said:

With the expansions come other issues. First money, in some of those countries a 9.99 app is a significant amount of money. Second, internet speeds have not caught up so downloading and uploading into the cloud is kind of a no go. Third, even if bandwidth is available but money is not, it is unethical to push people into apple's super expensive ecosystem, but I guess that's apple these days. 

The questions about quality of internet access are valid, but I don't get the other concerns.  It's not like Apple is putting a gun to people's heads in those countries to make them buy iPhones and apps.  If you live in one of those countries and can afford Apple products, this makes your life easier -- that's not a bad thing.

[Applefreak]

Yes and no. I am concerned because I've seen marketing strategies in some of those countries. While our marketing is mostly subtle and trying to provoke a certain feeling of acceptance, comfort etc. there are countries that advertise more aggressively by telling people they need to have that product now. It's hard to explain unless you have seen it. We did a charity delivery to some African country a few years ago and people had iPhones an other top of the line smartphones. They were new but totally useless, no net coverage outside the city and only prepaid contracts without any data, but as they told me, they had to have it because Americans have it and the French have it... and we are better than them so we have to have it too. Later that day I've seen an ad on a bus stop basically saying the same thing he just told me. From my understanding people took out loans on them and their children, which is still practice in some countries, just to get this device. In the hotel they had an old Macintosh 6100 computer for booking and a new 27 inch iMac, basically a paper weight, but they needed to have it. 

And you couldn't really lower prices down to their level of income without loosing money at the time, so they paid full retail. That's a years salary for an entry level last gen iPhone.

 

Maybe I am just fed up with it because of personal experiences. I am still hoping they are changing their strategy and start to to offer lower priced devices and services again so that everyone can enjoy their products services without literally going bankrupt. Same goes for other manufacturers too. 

 

I hope they have a per country policy in place for certain prices but I doubt it.

[captain_to_fire]

2 hours ago, Applefreak said:

it is unethical to push people into apple's super expensive ecosystem

No it’s not. Because no one is forcing them to get into the Apple ecosystem. It’s presented as an option.