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Namaste India: iTunes Store mein aapka swagat hain
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Now that all the hoopla surrounding the Apple iPhone 3G launch in India is finally settling down, people are finally beginning to convince themselves that laying hands on the iPhone 3G is not going to be easy. Although Vodafone has reduced the prices down to Rs. 28,000 in the stores according to some reports, the price continues to remain a big deal for the masses.
Quite a few sales have been made through the official carriers in India - Airtel and Vodafone, although the actual number of iPhones in the country is far more. There are quite a few features that are unavailable on the iPhone such as Visual Voicemail, iTunes Store etc, both of which are immensely popular in the western countries.
Apple is now getting ready to officially launch the iTunes Music Store for India. Although the gates to the iTunes Store were thrown open just before the iPhone 3G launch in the US, the store only sells apps for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. We believe this hurried launch of the store in over 20 countries was only to facilitate people upgrading the firmwares on their iPod Touch gadget, for which apple charged $10 to each customer. Of course, they can also buy the apps using the store too.
Now, the company behind the world’s largest and most popular online entertainment store is now set to launch the iTunes Music store for India which will offer songs, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks and iPod games. Although the company has sold over five billion songs through its iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) and rented or sold over 50,000 movies per day, it would be interesting to see how it caters to the Indian market.
Presently, songs on the store are sold at $0.99 (which is approximate about Rs. 40). Not just that, the songs are DRM’d, which means that they can only be played on authorized devices only. You cannot share them with friends, nor can you play them on any other device. Most of the media that is distributed in out country is pirated and copied freely. It’s safe to believe that the store would be even less popular than the iPhone 3G itself.
However, one great advantage of the iTunes store is the free content available through it. Occasionally, Apple releases free tracks on Tuesdays and there are thousands of Audio and Video podcasts available through the store. Spanning various topics, these media are a great source of entertainment at no extra cost.
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