Apple’s iOS 13 shows the company is finally listening to users in India

• Tim Cook’s keynote at the WWDC 2019 last night included the launch of Apple’s new operating system, iOS 13.
  
• A lot of the updates in the new operating system show how Apple is now looking towards the Indian market and making features that will optimise future iPhones for local users.
  
• The updates include a myriad of Indian languages being introduced onto the platform, lowering the iPhone’s data usage and making Siri — Apple’s digital assistant — more Indian.
  

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off last night and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, announced the launch of iOS 13. There’s something in the new operating system for consumers and for business users. But more importantly, there are a lot of features could make Apple iPhones appealing for Indian consumers.

Fans of Apple in India have long complained that the company’s operating system and its features are not optimised for the Indian market — especially Apple Maps in its constant comparison to Google Maps.

Lowering the connectivity barrier

India has witnessed massive growth in Internet users thanks to data getting cheaper with Jio’s aggressive pricing in the Indian market. But the fact remains that a lot of areas around the country still suffer from low connectivity or no connectivity altogether.

Apple’s is making downloading videos easier with the iOS 13 so that users in those areas can set a time that’s optimal for downloading videos. This works for users who may also be on a limited data plan and subject to dowload limitations.

Apple also claims that the new operating system will reduce app download sizes by 50% and make app updates upto 60% smaller.

Siri will sound more Indian

In Apple’s new operating system, Apple's virtual assistant — Siri — will have a more ‘natural’ Indian voice, both male and female. It will also have something called ‘Suggested Automations,’ which will allow the assistant to suggest personalised routines for users.

Support for 15 new Indian languages

The iOS 13’s keyboard will be able to support a total of 22 Indian languages, including 15 new ones. Assamese, Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri (Devanagari, Arabic), Konkani (Devanagari), Manipuri (Bangla, Meetei Mayek), Maithili, Nepali, Sanskrit, Santali (Devanagari, Ol Chiki), and Sindhi (Devanagari, Arabic are new editions to Apple’s portfolio.

The base software will include four new system fonts — Gurmukhi, Kannada, Odia and Gujarati. This means you can run your entire phone in a different language. According to APple, the new fonts within iOS 13 will help when reading foreign scripts in apps like Safari, typing up messages and or even swiping through a contact list.

Documents will be the most linguistically diversified feature in the new operating system with support for 30 Indian languages.

In recent months, Apple has looked to address a lot of those complaints from Indian users by introducing updates to Apple Maps and ramping up manufacturing in India so that it can launch its Apple Stores.

Tim Cook’s announcements at the WWDC only go to show the growing importance of India for Apple — especially since the company’s been kicked out of China — and how they plan on winning over users in the country.

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