New Delhi: Apple Inc on Tuesday launched the newest iPhone 11 starting at $699 and also new gaming and content streaming subscription services at aggressive monthly tariffs as the California-based company looks to create new revenue streams amidst falling phone sales globally.
The new phone, the successor to iPhone XR, comes with new wide and ultra wide camera to capture more outside the picture frame and also while shooting videos.
Apple also launched iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, the first devices it has called ‘Pro’, at $999 and $1,099, respectively. The Pro phones boast of a 4-5 hour longer battery life than iPhone XR and feature a telephoto camera as well.
The company also launched a new gaming subscription service called Apple Arcade that it had announced in May this year where as many as 100 exclusive games will be available across all Apple devices.
Apple Arcade will be available from 19 September at $4.99 a month. It will also come with a one-month free trial.
The company has in the last one year increased focus on content and services in a bid to battle falling revenue from iPhone sales.
In May, it launched Apple TV app in over 100 countries, for viewers to watch TV in a single app across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and select smart TVs.
To ride the content consumption wave, the phonemaker announced that its content subscription service Apple TV+ will give access to several shows across genres at $4.99 a month.
“The first show will be available on 1 November and new shows will be added every month. We are giving you all these shows for the price of a single movie rental. Plus, every new iPhone, iPad and Mac purchased will give you one year of Apple TV+ free," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said at an event at the Steve Jobs Theatre, in Cupertino, California.
At this aggressive price, Apple’s monthly streaming tariff at $4.99 is set to give Netflix ($13 a month tariff) and Disney ($7 a month tariff) a run for its money.
Services generated an all-time record revenue of $11.5 billion for the company in the June quarter when revenue excluding iPhone increased 17% from last year with growth across all categories.
Overall, Apple posted quarterly revenue of $53.8 billion in the June quarter, an increase of 1% from the year earlier. iPhone sales generated $26 billion in revenue, down 12% from last year’s June quarter.
The California-based company on Tuesday also launched the next generation of the Apple Watch starting at $399 and comes with an “always on" display, which boasts of an 18 hour battery life. The Series 5 wearable from Apple will also come with international emergency calling facility.
Apple is the world’s third largest smartphone seller after Samsung and Huawei.
Back in India, budget smartphone sellers dominate a lion’s share of the smartphone market. Apple, which is present only in the premium segment, has a miniscule share in this price-sensitive market where Chinese budget brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo and OPPO and South Korea’s Samsung are top sellers.
However, thanks to a strategic shift in pricing strategy, India, once an insignificant market for Apple, bounced back to “double-digit growth" in June quarter.
In April, the phone maker decided to opt for price cuts in India and brought down the price of the 64 GB iPhone XR from ₹76,900 to roughly ₹59,000. Similar discounts were introduced for other variants of the same model as well. The price-sensitive Indian consumer lapped up this scheme.
It, however, lags behind Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus (43% share) and Samsung (22% share) and has 20% share in the premium segment but a minuscule share in the overall domestic smartphone market in India.
