Apple iTunes store is now available in 12 Asian countries which includes Hong Kong, Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei,Cambodia, Thailand and Macau. With the launch of native online Apple iTunes stores in these countries Apple diverse its presence in the World.
Previously if someone from these countries want to buy songs or albums via iTunes store than they can do so only by purchasing so called iTunes gift cards from USA and use them on the official store. But with the launch of native online store, people from these countries can now use their local credit or debit cards to purchase the content from iTunes store.
It is also expected that the prices of songs and album on iTunes stores of these countries will be lower than that of USA. The price of a full Album in these new iTunes stores will range from 7.5$ to 10$ and price per song will be 1$ which is lower as compared to 1.29$ in USA.
Not launched in India
Apple excluded India from its list of launching native iTunes store in Asia. Well exact reason for this exclusion is still not clear but according to analysts due to licensing and piracy issues Apple excluded India from this launch.
But wait a minute India already have an album and song downloading service. Well if you don’t know than you must see Flipkart’s Flyte online music store which offers vast variety of songs from different languages a very affordable rate. Normal rate for downloading a song from Flyte music store ranges from Rs. 9 to Rs. 15 which is far lower than the price per song in Apple’s iTunes store.