The iTunes Store has finally brought purchases to India.
iTunes was already used by millions of users sporting iOS devices but were not able to make use of its store features. We couldn’t buy music, movies or TV shows from the store though we could already buy apps – although, I’m pretty sure paid apps were not needed anyways. Still, there were a few of us geeks – us included – who knew the key to unlocking those features.
iTunes currently offers Music – both Indian and International. Browsing songs gets irritating after a few minutes though – the application just doesn’t take a hint. It force feeds us more Indian music. Or maybe we’re just biased that way.
Movies, on the other hand, are only ones classified as “Bollywood”, which at this point is rather disappointing – they’re called “Films”. There are a few worldwide movies available but not enough to make iTunes a preferred movie delivery system at the moment.
The iTunes Store offers one to purchase in Indian Rupees(INR) and it is cheaper on iTunes Store India as compared to iTunes Store worldwide – at various points we’ve seen the prices as much as a quarter of the original USD prices. The iTunes Store offers a 90 second preview for music-pieces larger than 150 seconds and 30 second previews shorter songs. The music is DRM-Free and at its best audible quality.
One could also purchase “Tones” now, also knows as Ringtones on the iTunes Store, for your iOS devices. After searching a lot, we did find a few Hollywood movies, but not up to the mark we were hoping for.
TV shows – well, we’ve yet to see any news on that front. Let’s hope we get proper sitcoms from the US, UK and Australia in place or in lieu of the TV shows that we have here.
Screenshots of iTunes Store
This image and the next clearly show the massive difference in pricing of individual songs. The exchange rate is roughly 50INR per dollar. Getting one song at 15INR one could bag four times the songs one could in the US.
The full iTunes review coming soon.
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