“Earlier this month, Apple brought its Apple Music product into Alphabet’s smartphone ecosystem, with a native Apple Music app for Android,” Andrew Tonner writes for The Motley Fool. “This marks only the second time Apple has launched an Android app, following the cheeky “Move to iOS” app it launched alongside the iPhone 6s’s September debut. Apple Music on Android can be downloaded anywhere in the world except China, but Apple promises a Chinese version in short order as well.”
“Apple is trying to create a beachhead with Android users, with the intention of converting them into Apple device owners. For a point of comparison, think of iTunes for Windows, which helped drive an explosion in iPod sales,” Tonner writes. “Given the news in Apple’s most recent quarterly report that 30% of new iPhone buyers defected from Android, Apple has a great opportunity to continue to siphon away Android users. At the same time, though, Google’s product ecosystem now features multiple on-demand music services, so Apple Music might not prove as appealing as iTunes for Windows. Only time will tell, but Apple’s intent is crystal clear.”
“As for the streaming music space, adding Apple Music to the world’s largest computing ecosystem will ratchet up the pressure on Spotify and Pandora, the two largest players in the space,” Tonner writes. “Apple intends to use Apple Music as a funnel into its ecosystem, which carries consequences for Alphabet, Pandora, Spotify, and more. As we’ve seen repeatedly with Apple’s Hotel California-esque ecosystem, once users check in, they tend never to leave.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those who settle for fragmandroid are notoriously cheap. Good luck convincing them to pony up $9.99-$14.99/per month, Apple. Regardless, it was an exceedingly nominal amount of effort and cost to port the app to wannabe iPhones. Tipping the relatively few Android settlers who’ll bite — and who are likely the most probable to be considering an upgrade to a real iPhone anyway — is the main motive for offering the app.
google only cares about selling your personal info to paying customers. Nothing else matters.
My guess is that it was more for family plans, so families wouldn’t object when they have that one outcast family member who uses android, more so than it would have been meant for trying to get individual Android users to subscribe.
That makes sense… a value-added service for Apple’s iPhone customers. My alternate theory is that providing an official Apple Music app for Android was a necessary condition (concession from Apple) to get all the major music powers to sign on to Apple’s new streaming service. It was a “last minute deal maker” to get them all onboard, which explains why the Android app was not available on DAY ONE of Apple Music. If it was something Apple was planning to provide all along, it would have been there on launch day.
> For a point of comparison, think of iTunes for Windows…
It’s not the same as iTunes for Windows. A computer running iTunes is needed to use an iPod (that is not iPod touch), so it was a necessary app to sell iPods to Windows users. The Android Apple Music app is not “necessary” (unless is was a requirement to get Apple Music launched).
Android users are are already switching to iPhone at an accelerating rate. An official Apple Music app from Apple is not going increase the rate of switching; it may even slow it down a bit.
Why is Apple Music for Android a bad idea?
Because iTunes sucks.
You want to WOW non-Apple users and show off the best of Apple, not the worst.
I don’t really get it. Android users are notorious for not paying for any services and stealing the ones that they can and hating Apple. How can Apple Music ever get traction with this group?
There are many Android users who can afford the iPhone and fit the Apple demographic, who were just sucked into the system by circumstance. This is just another way to get their attention to reconsider an iPhone when they next upgrade.
“many Android . . . demographic, who were sucked into the system by circumstance.”
Really? They just happened to be in a cell phone store and were offered an Android phone even though they were capable of making a good decision but just happened to walk out with and Android phone?
This happens all the time. Ordinary people know very little about tech. To make things worse, many trust sales people, even at Best Buy. And when a salesman talks them into getting an android, they do without questioning the motives. These people are some of those android-to-iOS migrants.
LOL! Exactly!
Not everyone is aware of the differences between phones. And when you have salespeople who don’t have the purchaser’s best interests in mind, customers are bound to make mistakes through other peoples insights.
Many Android users I encounter simply don’t realize that smartphones aren’t a commodity like paper towels and diapers. Only when the differences are explained by technical literates such as us (not salespeople trying to make a commission by selling slow-moving stock inventories) can they really understand that only an iPhone is an iPhone.
RE: “They just happened to be in a cell phone store and were offered an Android phone even though they were capable of making a good decision but just happened to walk out with and Android phone?”
Yes.
I’m not going to argue that there’s a large number of poor people out there. But if that’s where your analysis ends, then you’re only exposing your own narrow mindedness with that comment.
The vast majority of people aren’t religious zealots with their electronics. They use what offers them the best overall value. Apple used to be that company.
Businesses, being extremely cost sensitive and more likely to need tailored products, are stuck in a love/hate relationship when Apple refuses to offer the technology they want at a competitive price. I know many tech savvy and affluent non-iOS users. Our company allows any phone and many still people prefer Blackberry, which JUST WORKS.
So rather than treat anyone that isn’t worshipping Apple with ill-informed scorn, perhaps you should learn what it is that they like that they can’t get from Apple. Then perhaps you should ask yourself why Apple doesn’t do a better job offering what users would like. Ask yourself if Apple cares so much about user experience, why won’t Apple allow a user to easily revert back to a previous OS when they upgrade and find bugs or incompatibilities. Ask yourself why Apple, with all its money, overcharges so much for RAM, or why a Lightning-to-HDMI adapter costs $50.
It should be noted that Android itself is not evil, it’s just a copycat OS, one of many. It’s the Google data-sucking services that are true evil.
Reflect on this: both Apple and MDN use Google services extensively.
Lest we forget, the real value of the iTunes Music Store was not selling music, it was selling iPods.
I understand buying Beats for the Hardware. I understand buying Beats for the software (to replace iTunes). But actually going after the market for paid music/streaming, where Spotify has yet to make a profit? What is this??
Trying to extract profits from Android users in the Paid Music Market. That is a hilarious business plan.
I wish Apple had used Beats for the software, Beats Music had a better UI than Apple Music, it doesn’t appear that they used much of it at all.