Official Apple iPhone in India by September

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.

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.

Price

Few friends on Twitter have already commented that the price range of ₹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 ₹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 ₹21,000 (~ $525) and the 16GB model for about ₹28,000 (~ $700) in the grey markets of India.