The signs are pretty good for Apple's iPhone 3G launch in India. As far as we can tell, there's a whole bunch of excitement among India's switched-on, well-educated tech savvy gadget geeks...
See - what we're reading right now from EETimes describes a lot of excitement there right now, as launch day clicks ever closer as the tock ticks to August 22.
Airtel and Vodaphone will be offering the in-demand device - three million of which have already been sold worldwide - in India. "Vodaphone is accepting iPhone 3G orders via SMS messages, but has also said nothing about the cost of the new phone or cancellation policies."
What we read about then is a huge big grey market for iPhone non-3G, which sets punters back around $299...but there appears to be some, erm, anticipation, as to how much the iPhone will cost...
"Here in India, cellphones have become status symbols. Whether you use all the features or merely receive voice calls, it doesn't really matter," said Chiranjeev Shenoy, an executive at a multinational company, adding, "$600 is too high a price to pay, around $300 is a good price" for a new iPhone.
Oops, one snag, there's no 3G in India yet, and GPS isn't truly "there" yet... but we are interested in the long tail to the anticipative iPhone article..."There are few reliable statistics on the number of iPhones in India. Estimates range from 100,000 to 500,000."
Now, if only there were a smaller, perhaps less well-featured model that perhaps more people in the world's growth markets could afford.
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Comments
if there is no 3g and gps,
if there is no 3g and gps, then maybe apple can send to India some leftovers of 2g iphones, so that rest of the world woudnt have to fight with empty iphone shelves.
K
What do u mean "K"? What do u know of India?
What does that mean GPS isn't
What does that mean GPS isn't truly "there" yet? GPS is world wide. All you need is a GPS receiver.
Was going to say the same
Was going to say the same thing :-P
and a well-placed
and a well-placed satellite.
In India we wont be able to
In India we wont be able to use the 3G until early next year, However most ppl buying iPhone is not for the 3G experience its cuz of it wud be status symbol in furiously growing rich Indian classes.
iphone
iphone; apps., new updates coming. does the stock market understand that apple is in the early stages of the game? look for market share to continue expansion.
the pre-ordering bit.
the pre-ordering activities by both Vodafone and Airtel are more like database-building exercises than anything else.
the Terms and Conditions for Airtel for example, are:
* "Booking" means expression of interest of buying Apple iPhone3G when it is available in the market.
* "Booking" doesnt imply that the customer has to purchase the product when it is launched and available.
* "Booking" doesnot guarantee that the product shall be made available to the customer.
* Airtel reserves the right to refuse the Booking at any stage.
* Airtel reserves the right to withdraw "Booking" at any time or at any stage.
* Some of the product features are not available in India or in certain service areas. Some of the features and services are dependent on the type of network the customer is in eg 3G, EDGE, GPRS, GSM. 3G is not available presently in India.
--
"booking" = "expression of interest"?
cost isn't that big an issue
cost isn't that big an issue as well, to be honest. i've seen plenty of iPhones around as is, and it's not like the N95 (priced @ initially $850, and now @ $600) has much trouble selling.
it is costing like hell at
it is costing like hell at INR31000(US$720) for 8GB and INR36100(US$840) for 16GB with sim lock, i will buy a nice nokia 3230 with 512mb card and get another mp3 player with fabulous specs for that money