Apple pivots to emerging markets for future growth

Apple has announced a vast geographic expansion of its services businesses - including its App Store and Apple Music - to a range of developing countries, principally in Africa and Asia. On the face of it, this could be seen as puzzling considering many of the countries have exceptionally low incomes and therefore low purchasing power for paid-for services, let alone an iPhone. This is, though, an attempt by Apple to establish its brand and mindshare among mid- to high-income consumers already plugged in to mobile, even if they are not in Apple’s ecosystem - and most will not be. Apple is targeting the mostly youthful and non-English speaking populations within these markets to future-proof its services footprint (which now accounts for 15% of revenue) and accelerate the development of local content.