Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Gadget-lovers had been eagerly awaiting the official launch of Apple’s iconic iPhone in India for some months now. But, the two mobile service providers, who tied up with Apple for delivering the iPhone to Indians, have virtually poured cold water on the hopes of millions of eager customers by fixing an abnormally high price. Both Vodafone-Essar and Bharti Airtel have priced the iPhone-3G (8GB memory) variant at Rs 31,000 and the 16GB variant at Rs 36,100. Vodafone has started sending SMSes on Wednesday to its customers, who pre-registered for the iPhone, quoting the price and asking them to pay an advance of Rs 10,000 to ensure early delivery of the gadget. Airtel has not yet formally announced the price but information posted on its website indicated that the price of iPhone gadgets would be the same as quoted by Vodafone. These phones are locked by the respective cellular service providers and will work only on those networks. As per the prevailing market rate, the price for a 8GB variant works to 708 US dollars and for 16GB 824 USD. Just a month ago, the iPhone-3G was launched in Japan for 214 USD (8GB) and 321 USD (16GB) by Softbank, but it was a bundle offer wherein customers are required to subscribe to that particular service. In Europe, iPhone-3G is available for not more than 400 USD. In the US, the 8GB variant comes for 199 USD and the 16GB for 299 USD. Of course, there too the gadget is locked to the AT&T network. An unlocked version too was made available in the US for 550 USD. Comparing the price in other countries, the Indian customers will certainly feel let down by the two cellular service providers who are clearly trying to “exploit” the craze for the iPhone. Vodafone and Airtel would have done well to extend bundle offers to their customers and fix a much lesser price for the iPhone-3G. It would have been beneficial to both the service providers as well as the customers. But so far, neither Vodafone nor Airtel spoke of any such offers.In fact, the high price may well turn into customer anger against the two companies who may not like to be taken for granted. People already started questioning the prices being quoted for the iPhone-3G at a time when the 3G (third generation) services are not yet available in India. It is expected that the 3G services will be formally be available in the country only next year after the Department of Telecommunications finalises the bids for spectrum and grant licenses to service providers. In the absence of 3G services, the iPhone will best serve as a mobile phone clubbed with an iPod. Nothing more than that, certainly. And in Indian prices of fancy electronic gadgets always witness a free fall. There is no guarantee that the iPhone-3G prices remain the same. Unless, of course, the two cellular service providers adopt dubious methods to secure their market. Already, hundreds of iPhones – ‘imported’ from the US and elsewhere -- are being used by scores of Indians and many gadgets are readily available in the grey market. Given the technical expertise our people have, it is no deal to unlock an iPhone and it has already been done successfully. So, any prudent one would as well choose to get one iPhone from abroad and get it unlocked here. And, no body knows whether the 3G services will really click and what the tariffs will be. Given the high cost of securing 3G spectrum, one may obviously expect the service providers to fix the 3G tariff on the higher side. This too could act as a deterrent for customers to avail of the services, at least initially. So, all such factors do really count. Whether iPhone-3G can really penetrate the Indian market as initially expected remains to be seen.
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