Named “Invention of the Year 2007″ by Times Magazine, the iPhone is an “Amazing” Phone. The above ad/video is one of Apple’s iPhone Ads.
Indians can rejoice now; Apple have promised to bring their iPhone to India by early September this year through Vodafone. I can predict that, unlike the US, there won’t be people lined up in front of the stores to buy the iPhone on its launch day. Nonetheless, many will eventually buy it in due course, if not for the features, but for the sleek-status-symbol, geek’s must-have-phone factor.
Well, the news about the launch of the Apple iPhone in India through Vodafone is all over the wire. By early September this year, we should be able to buy the official Apple iPhone. The initial model will be the 8GB iPhone while the 16GB is expected during summer 2009. It is also expected that Apple will be extending universal access for iPhone users to all major telecom carriers in India.
Business Standard reports that the Indian mobile subscriber base is expected to be roughly about 500 million by 2010. Customer churn has increased across telecom circles from 18% in 2006 to 20% in 2007. Industry Experts opined that Apple’s entry into this market could tilt the balance further.
The iPhone
The iPhone is the uber-cool geek-to-corporate-to-college-teens internet enabled enhanced multimedia device/phone from Apple. It was even named the Invention of the Year 2007 by Times Magazine. Complete with a multi-touch screen, it has not keypad but a virtual keyboard and buttons, digital camera, media player. It has capabilities for e-mail, internet surfing, Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band phone, uses standard GSM and can support EDGE data technology.
Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007 and was introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007, with releases in the United Kingdom, Germany and France in November 2007, and in Ireland and Austria in March 2008.
Read more about iPhone on Apple’s website.
Price
Few friends on Twitter have already commented that the price range of Rs. 28,000 (~ $700) for the 8GB model is costly. Well, I don’t think so. If we recollect the initial launch price of the Nokia N95, which was about Rs. 36,000 (~ $900), the iPhone price is pretty decent. The Nokia N95 came with a 2GB Memory and other typical modern-phone features, and it sold like crazy when it was launched.
Of course, India is notorious for the thriving grey market and many must have compared the pricing to currently available ones in the grey market. For instance, the hacked aka unlocked aka jail-broken 8GB iPhone model is available for as low as Rs. 21,000 (~ $525) and the 16GB model for about Rs. 28,000 (~ $700) in the grey markets of India.
Note:
- To make it easier, US$1 was calculated at India’s Rs. 40. At the time of writing this article the conversion of $1 was Rs. 39.95.
- Visit Labnol for the FAQ on unlocked iPhones in India.
Visit:
UPDATES
May 6, 2008:
As of today, Vodafone have officially announced that they will distribute Apple’s iPhone in India and 9 other countries — Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
Harit Nagpal, marketing and new business director of Vodafone said,
We have not yet decided on the date, price or the model of the iPhone to be made available in India. Discussions are on.
Brajeshwar posted this article
on Wed, Apr 16th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Categorized under Business, Featured, India and has the following tags
Comments Post Yours
There are 7 responses so far. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
It’s about time the iPhone made its entry. The hype is there, but IMO the price is waaay to high. Sure the multi-touch is amazing, cover flow rocks, the camera - well 2MP maybe but I’ve seen the snaps taken on that camera and they’re pretty good. The flaunt factor is undeniable, but still it’s priced too high. Me wonders if, like the state of the rest of the models which are introduced here, the price would reduce
pls send 16gb prise when lonch
the price is too high in compare to features. yes the style is there, even then i am not going to buy in this price. i have other better…. far better choices. bye bye apple iPhone!!!
hi i would like to buy apple iphone mobile for bulk.. is ther any commision for me if yes plsmail me
nachakra@cisco.com
Price is tooooooooo high for me … and I am not gonna buy this iphone @ this price .. may be will get from US and unlock it …
move over. N96 is here.
there’s no doubt that N96 is a complete multimedia device.
iphone is buggy, has issues.
for sale apple iphone 3g 16gb
Post yours