iOS 18.4 is a large deal for Apple in India

All of the dialog round Apple in India has centered round tariffs, and for good purpose — the model is aiming to maneuver a bulk of its iPhone manufacturing out of China to India. Doing so will undoubtedly be time-consuming, and we’ll want to attend and see if the factories assembling iPhones in India can deal with the elevated demand.

Apple usually is having fun with a heady momentum in India, gaining sizeable market share on the again of robust gross sales. However what I like essentially the most is the eye the model is paying to Indian shoppers on the software program entrance; iOS 18.4 debuted a month in the past, and whereas it would not convey a lot in the way in which of daring new options, it provides Indic language integration to the OS, and it’s fantastic.

In typical Apple style, the model took some time so as to add localization to iOS, however having used the characteristic during the last month, I can say with some confidence that it’s a significantly better implementation than Android. I switched the system language to Telugu on the iPhone 16 Professional Max and Hindi on one other gadget, and each languages have tight integration; it is nice to see the eye to element Apple lavished in direction of its localization efforts.

There are nonetheless a number of labels that present up in English — like Apple Intelligence — however in all places else, you may see Indic languages as commonplace. What’s fascinating about that is that every one the sub-menus and particulars in utilities like Health and Well being are additionally translated into Indic languages, and that makes it simpler to know key metrics like energy burned and exercise information.

Apple caught to a regular notation in settings the place it transliterated textual content into Telugu with out altering the English naming — it is simply that the alphabet has modified. Google does issues just a little otherwise the place it interprets the phrase into the supply language, and it isn’t as simple to find menus and sub-menus inside settings due to that (at the least for me).

If something, the one limitation I can consider is that Apple Intelligence is not obtainable with most Indic languages, so that you miss out on a lot of the AI-assisted options. Apart from that, Apple did a radical job integrating most Indic languages into iOS, and it is refreshing to make use of the iPhone in my native language.

Whereas English literacy is excessive in India, the power to make use of regional languages with an iPhone makes it that rather more attractive. This could result in a significant improve in gross sales, and I do know one loyal Android consumer who’s prepared to modify to iOS because of this modification. My dad has been utilizing Android telephones for the final decade — he is presently on a OnePlus Open — and whereas he likes utilizing the gadget, he is run into a number of points with Bluetooth connectivity and pairing with the OnePlus Watch 2.

I steered he swap over to an iPhone a number of occasions previously, however he is discovered iOS to be restrictive. However with the swap to Indic languages, he is concerned with making an attempt out the platform; he likes to sort in Telugu and makes use of Gboard extensively, and the tight integration of native languages mixed with the truth that Gboard is simply pretty much as good on iOS as it’s on Android was sufficient to get him at the least intrigued about switching over.

One other plus level is the broader ecosystem. My dad could be very lively, and he likes utilizing smartwatches; he is wished one thing just like the Apple Watch however on Android, and there simply is not one thing that has the same design and feature-set. Now that he is shifting to an iPhone (I am giving him an iPhone 16), I am setting him up with an Apple Watch, and I am excited to see how he likes the platform.