14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's iPhone seems to finally make its official entrance to the Indian market, but only in September 2008, and coming exclusively via Vodafone.
For the beginning, just the 8GB version of the handset will be available, the 16GB one being planned for a release in 2009. According to the online edition of Business Standard, a finance and business daily newspaper from India, the iPhone will have prices between 27,200 and 28,000 INR ($690 and $710) - a bit expensive, if compared to the prices the device is available for in Europe or the US.
Anyway, the iPhone can be bought even now in India, but only unlocked, which is not actually a legal thing to do, so most of the mobile users who want to own the Apple handset are waiting for it to become official.
In September, when the waiting should be over, the 3G iPhone will probably be rolled-out by Apple. But, since there is no Indian carrier to have a 3G network, only the 2.5G version will be suited for India. Which is not really a bad thing (for Apple I mean), as long as the handset's sales will be high. And I believe they will, as India is one of the largest mobile markets in the world, with about 250 million users.
In the (improbable) case you don't know too much about the iPhone, the handset is a sleek touchscreen device with a 3.5 inch display (16 million colors and 320 x 480 pixels), a multi-touch user interface based on Mac OS X, Wi-Fi, Google Maps, advanced Internet and Multimedia capabilities and only 11.6 millimeters in thickness.
With slightly over 41 million subscribers, Vodafone is currently the third largest mobile carrier in India (after Airtel, 57 million customers, and Reliance, 42 million customers) and the release of Apple's handset could propel the V carrier to the second position.
More than 4 million iPhones were sold worldwide until now, but the handset is a "hit" only in the US, as the Europe sales do not correspond to Apple's expectations. The company probably hopes the sells in India will be higher than in Europe. We'll see about that after September.