For a long time, iOS in India was dismissed as too niche—a platform reserved for the affluent few and largely irrelevant for scale-driven marketers focused on the masses. But the ground is shifting. As economic parity deepens across urban and emerging India, and a more digitally mature, aspirational consumer base rises, Apple is steadily expanding its footprint in the premium smartphone segment.
Despite this shift, many Indian marketers still view iOS through an outdated lens—treating it as a brand play and relying heavily on upper-funnel strategies. In doing so, they’re overlooking the full-funnel performance opportunity that iOS presents, particularly when paired with the precision and reach of a programmatic DSP.
This article explores why Indian brands need to reframe how they think about iOS, and why the next phase of app growth depends on a more strategic, data-driven approach.
The iOS Audience in India: Small in Size, Big on Value
Apple’s share of India’s smartphone market stood at approximately 8% in 2024, according to industry research. It’s a small figure by volume, but that figure doesn’t tell the full story.
In India, the iOS user base in 2025 is estimated to be around 13-14 million, with a growing trend towards iOS ownership in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, driven by factors like increased smartphone penetration, affordability, and aspirational value. The iOS user base, while smaller in comparison to Android, delivers more punch:
- Higher app spend: iOS users in India spend 2x to 2.5x more on apps and in-app purchases than their Android counterparts.
- Stronger monetization potential: Apple App Store revenues in India grew over 60% year-on-year, rising from approximately ₹27,700 crore in 2023 to ₹44,447 crore in 2024 — a surge driven by growing spend on subscriptions, premium services, and mobile gaming.
- Higher user retention: User retention rates on iOS are around 20-25% higher than Android on an average.
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Navigating iOS User Acquisition: Going Beyond Search & Discovery in the New Privacy Paradigm
While the value of India’s iOS audience is evident, acquiring these high-value users requires a different mindset. Unlike Android, where broad targeting and rich user data were the norm, iOS operates in a privacy-centric environment. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has significantly limited access to device-level identifiers, making it harder to track user journeys or attribute performance using traditional methods, such as tracking user journeys across apps or linking ad views to downstream conversions have become more complex, if not entirely unavailable.
This new paradigm calls for a fresh outlook to user acquisition.
Apple Ads is often a default strategy for iOS-focused growth marketers to reach App Store users. It’s intuitive, integrated within the App Store, and effective for intent-based installs.
But Apple Ads only addresses one moment in the user journey: search. Intent alone won’t unlock iOS’s full potential. As performance marketing becomes more sophisticated with a focus on full-funnel strategies, marketers need to move beyond discovery-driven channels and look at iOS more holistically.
A Maturing App Market Deserves Mature Strategies
Going beyond search and discovery isn’t just a tactical shift, rather it reflects the broader evolution of India’s app ecosystem. As the market matures, success is no longer defined by installs alone. Metrics like retention, lifetime value, and downstream engagement are now at the heart of sustainable growth.
This shift plays directly to iOS’s strengths. With higher monetization potential, better user retention, and a fast-growing premium user base across Tier 1 and 2 cities, iOS offers unmatched value. The question is no longer “Is the iOS audience large enough?” but rather “Can you afford to ignore a smaller but more valuable audience?”
To tap into this value, marketers must build strategies that drive conversion, deepen engagement, and maximize lifetime value. That means combining creative personalization with contextual targeting, investing in mid- to lower-funnel formats, and using real-time signals to guide spend. It also requires re-evaluating measurement models to account for privacy-first attribution and probabilistic performance insights.
The Case for a Programmatic Shift
This is where demand-side platforms (DSPs) come into play. Mobile-first DSPs, designed around the changing privacy ecosystems, enable marketers to reach users beyond search through high-impact video, native, and playable formats, while retargeting those who drop off mid-journey. With ML-driven optimization driving campaign outcomes, programmatic DSPs also allow bid allocations to optimize towards downstream actions such as subscriptions, purchases, or content consumption.
Turning Constraints Into Opportunity
Indian brands must begin to rethink how they approach iOS – not as a side note, but as a core part of their user acquisition and engagement strategy.
In Part 2 of this series, we will discuss current challenges around iOS user acquisition in India and explore deeper into how programmatic advertising can help marketers overcome these barriers.
Explore success stories from leading brands in India who have charted their growth story with mDSP's programmatic capabilities: https://mdsp.co/casestudies
