Apple has officially announced prices for the iPhone in India. The news first reached many Vodafone subscribers via SMS, who had pre-registered for the iPhone via Vodafone’s website. The 8GB model will be priced at Rs. 31,000 whereas the 16GB model would be priced at Rs. 36,100.
This news has caused a major upset among a lot of people who were looking forward to owning an iPhone by next week. I am sceptical if too many people would be able to afford a phone at this price. Even among the affluent, there would be tremendous competition in terms of price vs. features with popular phones like the Nokia E90 Communicator, the upcoming (and much hyped) Nokia N96 and some Blackberry devices (including the upcoming Blackberry Bold).
I would personally wait for the hype to fall, Apple to realize that phones with such stellar prices never sell in India and eventually for the price to reduce by as much as 50 percent or more.
What’s your take on the iPhone pricing? If you were planning to buy one, will you still be interested?
Update: From the pricing schedule it is clear now that the iPhone 3G 8 GB is priced at $700+ in India while the same thing is priced $199 in the US. What can explain the huge difference in the prices. Is this just another case of Apple trying to “skim the third world markets” with maximum revenue extraction, or there is something more to it (duties, taxes, CVDs etc). Can somebody throw some light on this huge price disparity?
BTW, check out this IPhone cartoon by Saad Akhtar, one of our readers. He has started a cartoon blog titled FlyYouFools. Subscribe to it here for a daily dose.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, the data plans are also out now. The higlights are that there is no ‘unlimited plan’. 500 bucks a month gets you 50 MB of downloads and a 1000 bucks gets you 600 MB.
I can’t decide if Vodafone tied up with Apple or HTC??
an extra zero was put in the price of the 8gb iphone I think
From what I’ve seen enough people have paid that much or more for the hacked phones. Having said that I would expect the price to fall over next year. I think they are trying to make the most of early adopters. The data part sucks though. Wish they were more generous with that.
it’s a no brainer that people should wait till the n96 hits the shelves. apple products are always about great pr and hype, not that i don’t use an apple product myself, but iphone literally has been overhyped beyond imagination.
more than the pricing, the product has issues!
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/61404
Yes, the prices are dissapointing. 31K may make sense to the gadgets loving, early tech adopters but certainly will not make for a replacement demand.
And I wonder if the initial reports of 9K for the iPhone was just another instrument in Apple’s marketing hype… maybe they were seeded to create excitement.
“What can explain the huge difference in the prices?”
1. Apple wants to be a luxury brand, to maintain it’s “cool” status. Not something everyone should carry around.
2. The US price comes as a part of a contract. Nothing like this in India.
3. The typical model for selling mobile phones and other gadgets is to first sell it at really high prices and extract as much profit as possible. Then, reduce prices gradually, giving the buyer an impression that the gadget is a steal at that price. Then reduce prices even more… By then, another “hot” item enters the market. And this goes on and on.
Hi Gaurav,
You are right in your comment that in US, the price comes as part of the contract with the carrier. Actually, the service provider sets the price of the handset model they are selling or bundling their contract with.
In iPhone’s case, AT&T has set the price of the iPhone, which is subsidized. The actual price of the iPhone in US is $500.
But I agree that price in India is way higher than expected and it will certainly put off many prospective buyers. I am one of them.
The funny part is that Vodafone and Airtel stores will be open from midnight of 21 Aug to sell the iPhone.
Sorry Apple, Indians won’t queue up to empty their pockets by nothing more than a over-hyped stupid PHONE.
Apple doesn’t want to be in the category of regular products and that is why it prices itself out of reach of the masses.
The US price of $200 is also only available as part of a 2 year contract and you need to have a good standing with the operator. So, if you can get an iPhone for $200 from the US also, you’ll be lucky.
I don’t know why everyone in India was thinking that the iPhone will be priced at $200. Don’t people read the news ! I have a first gen iPhone and am NOT going to upgrade cause I’m happy with my current phone and people who have that kind of money should think of buying something else. The N96 sure looks good … or the HTC Diamond or Dream.
Anyway, the iPhone is not a regular phone and in fact my 2 year old Nokia beats it in terms of *features* and I still use the iPhone only because of the awesome browsing experience. I’m not a heavy phone user anyway, but having the internet in your pocket does mean a lot to me
First of all to all the people who think the iPhone is just over-hyped and a show off phone. You have got it wrong.
I have been using the iPhone for almost a year now and I cannot imagine myself moving to another phone ever. Ease of use, great UI, awesome applications, amazing web experience … I could go on and dont get me wrong I am NOT an apple fan.
But the iPhone is really worth every rupee spent.
The price difference between India and US is because in the US, when you buy an iPhone your call and data rates are much higher than when you use a regular phone. Infact the plan rates for the 3G iPhone are suppose to be higher than those for the 2G iPhone.
But there is still a 200$ price difference between an unsubsidized US iPhone and the Indian one- that i can attribute to duty, taxes, etc, etc
@Shitij: No doubt the iPhone UI is exceptional. Most Apple products DO have better design and usability… But the price is just too much! I mean.. 35K? It’s still a phone, and for 35K you have better phones, although they will have buttons and a slightly less cool UI. It’s just too expensive.
Although I dont doubt you’ll still see thousands buying it. But I hope there are no queues waiting at mightnight for the stores to open. That would just be sad…
Meanwhile there are other ways to get a cheap iPhone (if you have fanboys in office)
http://www.flyyoufools.com/death-and-iphone
http://www.flyyoufools.com/death-and-iphone/
Has anyone used the Nokia E90 Communicator for web-browsing? How does it compare with the iPhone browser?
I think this is outrageous and ridiculous pricing by Apple/Vodafone. I am not going to buy the iPhone for Rs. 31000. It simply does not make sense. Check out my blog for my views on iPhone pricing in India.
I am seeing a lot of people twittering and blogging about the stellar iPhone prices. Obviously all these people “were” potential buyers and Apple has obviously delayed their plans.
I wonder – hasn’t Apple done any research about Indian markets before even thinking of announcing a product at such prices??
@Shitij,@Sharninder I agree on the internet part of IPhone ( i have one and it kicks ass), its mind blowing.
Face it if you live in US(and only US), you have limited visibilty to cell phones, ppl here have barely heard of a 2 Megapixel cameraphone bfor the iphone got released. and GPS , wow!! the stuff I put in car is in my phone ..how wonderful?? Combine this with the HYPE MACHINE called APPLE and you have a superb combination of ABSOLUTE CRAP.
I am not saying IPhone is not innovative ..yes it is..it has a underlying OSX Core, Touchscreen which is waaaaaaaay better than anything out there, and a HUGE GROUP of RABID FANBOIS.
I hope every phone has a touchscreen(I mean the full package , not just like what HTC does with WINMO) like an IPHONE and that’s it..nothing else…I dont even need the OSX core. just that fabulous touchscreen on top of any platform WINMO,SYMBIAN,RIM will make a device great (but Unfortunately I hear Mr Steve Jobs(APPLE) have patented most of it
)
I really hope Nokia 58000 Xpressmedia and the rest S60 V5 devices are the answer from Nokia to this (hope it gets here soon) and then we can see who fares better(not in US though cos they are a bunch of senseless Idiots who will lick anything with the APPLE logo)
I think I’ll wait till end of the year till I can collect enough money and they reduce the prices a bit.
I wonder how the 2nd hand phones will be priced?
Hi
There is a myth in the market place on low pricing of the product (reference price point being Rs. 8000 or Rs.12000/- which
refers to AT&T pricing of USD 199 or USD 299).
The reports don’t factor the commitment which a customers needs to give for a particular Price Plan for a period of 24 Months
in the case of AT&T. For O2 the commitment is for 18 months with selected plans.
But, if we calculate other cost like montly rental for voice, i.e., 69.99 (USD), the total cost of ownership for the period
of 24 months for a 8 GB model comes around Rs.81000/-! The total cost of ownership for O2 is around Rs.200000/- over a period
of 18 months.
In first look it looks high, but in long term, it is still cheaper in India. So, don’t stop urself from buying this lovely
gadget…
Rajiv
I do not believe this
Hi
A bit of relief. Now airtel is providing option of EMI to buy iPhone (www.airtel.in/iphone3g). At least, now people who were
expecting to be in range of 16-20K can think again to buy it with EMI option. What you say guys? Can we hope to get its price
down in future as well?
Rajesh
I-PHONE
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Brand New Nokia N96 16GB $350
Brand New Nokia N95 8GB $280
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Brand New Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 $300
Brand New Sony Ericssson K800i $250
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Samsung omnia i900………$305usd
HTC Touch Diamond ………$350usd
Nokia n96 16gb………….$320usd
Apple iphone 3G 8gb……..$260usd
Sony ericsson xperia x1….$315usd
HTC Touch PRO…. ………$380usd
Apple iphone 8gb………..$200usd
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Samsung i8510 16GB(NEW)….$275usd
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