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International iPhone 3G Launches: India, Singapore, Estonia, Romania

jfanning said:
There was a interview on some web site a while back with the CEO of Vodafone where he discussed the cost of doing business in India, and in particular how the cost of making (from the carriers point of view) a call in India was dramatically lower than the likes of the UK
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Well I just confirmed from an Indian friend to post here!
She uses Vodafone and pays <ahem>.........:eek::eek:$.01:eek::eek:for a minute worth of calls!

Seems like I'll need to investigate a bit more!
 
rols said:
it's not 4-6 weeks, everyone who's announced a date says August 22nd, that's 2 weeks from now. That's an extra 1.5 million phones, and they sold a million in the first 3 days in the US and they are still out of them in most of the other markets they were released in.
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a million in the first 3 days included not only iphones sold in the us. it included all iphones apple sold during those first 3 days. outside the us most iphones were not sold by apple, but carriers, so the 1m includes iphones apple sold to carriers, and those may or may not have been sold to actual end users. it's possible that apple haven't even delivered all of those yet.

it's possible that some of those were bought by carriers that are only introducing the phone in some markets now. eg, that number may include all phones vodafone bought, including those vodafone plans to sell in czech republic (starting on 22nd), those bought by telia, including those telia is going to sell in the baltic states, and all bought by t-mob, including those t-mob is starting to sell in hungary.
 
1.13 BILLION people!!!!!!!!!!!!

ImNoSuperMan said:
. 800$ for a good smartphone which is LATEST n the COOLEST is no big deal here.
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Nononononononononononononononono!!!!!!!!!! Someone at Apple has lost his mind! India's population is over 1.13 BILLION (March 2008 estimate, Wikipedia): half too poor to care,the other half geeks with degrees in computer science!! (Just kidding, but . . .)
I thought it was crazy to add any more countries, with frustrated people all over the world reporting "I'm #395 on the waiting list, no shipments expected for six weeks, my city got a total initial shipment of five phones."
Oh well, I thought, Steve hates to not deliver on a promise, the contracts with the carriers in the "new 22" were probably negotiated and signed long ago and saying "sorry, we just can't do it" wouldn't be easy, BUT . . .
INDIA????!!!!???
IMPOSSIBLE!
In addition to the ENORMOUS current backlog, the size of which is anybody's guess, the rumored 800,000/wk production goal now becomes almost insignificant.
Apple selling Vaporware?!?
To millions of peple, that's what it comes down to . . .
And it's bad business.
SHORT supply is one thing, but for a spectacular, triumphant rollout, a greater percentage of those camping out overnight in lines stretching around the block should leave with something more than a "sorry!"
 
Oh I wish so much iPhone could be released in Russia but that will probably never happen.
 
Apple Ink said:
Well I just confirmed from an Indian friend to post here!
She uses Vodafone and pays <ahem>.........:eek::eek:$.01:eek::eek:for a minute worth of calls!

Seems like I'll need to investigate a bit more!
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Alot of people in that region use pre paid cards which allow for free incoming calls, even international. I went to bangladesh a few years back and used a 40 taka prepaid card which lasts for about 2 to 3 weeks, and it costs around 0.50 cents. And with the free incoming international calls, I was able to have my GF and family call me without any problems at the same time ATT was offering something along the lines of $2 and up per minute!!!
 
India

Hi

I'm currently in India and while iPhone is certainly something that I have been waiting for, I doubt the iPhone will have a recording breaking impact here..

Reasons being that Indians (majority) can't afford the expensive smart-phones or have no need for such complex gadgetry. The iPhone is essentially for the savvy new-age Indian who's number albeit large but still not like those in the USA / Europe etc. These Indians are mostly young school/college going kids or professionals from the various top mnc's etc..People here love the cool factor and tend to show off their mobile phones as a status symbol...This is a catch 22...If the iPhone is expensive (most likely as contractual obligations are rarely adhered to) it'll be out of reach for many...If it is offered at a lower price point it'll be too common and hence the cool factor is N/A and will keep many people away...

What I guess I mean to say is that smart phones like iPhone et al are not seen more for their functionality as much as for their status symbol..Many people I know will not switch to iPhone if its a common phone

Me on the other had, am an apple fanatic...3 Macbooks in 2 years and several iPod's has me hooked to apple and I totally love OS X...and iPhone is the only phone that will keep my apple family complete :D

So I don't care if its common or not I'll still buy it only coz of the OS but I doubt the average Indian consumer will be interested in the OS since majority are Windows / Microsoft users...

Just my 2 cents!! ;)
 
Apple Ink said:
Hmmm... no plans? Well that was expected from the $.01 calls!
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they've not officially announced any plans yet.. but since they seem to be selling it at non subsidized costs.. dont think there will be any fixed plans with it, cos that wud make me pissed..
 
Well the comparison between call rates can't really be made as the cost of living is very different..For example: You can't buy in India for Rs. 500.00 what you can buy for $500.00..
 
yes...Incoming is free in India. Been like that for a long time. Even Virgin mobiles pays you for ur incomming.

http://www.virginmobile.in/


Never had subsidised mobile handsets here. Just get it at usual retail price. The ones carrier provide are usually cheap basic mobiles and that too at normal price.


So I wonder how they plan to sell iphone at a subsidised rates...
 
Apple Ink said:
:confused:More details would be considerate!
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Apple Ink, I'll try my best to explain but I'm not very good at it..sorry :(

For instance, $500.00 in the US can buy you a lot more services / goods as compared to Rs. 500.00 in India...$500 is considered big money but Rs.500 is no longer big money for the amount of goods/services that can be purchased for it..

So even the comparatively cheap call rates in India are not that cheap for the average Indian user..

Did I make any sense ? :confused:
 
peanut48 said:
Apple Ink, I'll try my best to explain but I'm not very good at it..sorry :(

For instance, $500.00 in the US can buy you a lot more services / goods as compared to Rs. 500.00 in India...$500 is considered big money but Rs.500 is no longer big money for the amount of goods/services that can be purchased for it..

So even the comparatively cheap call rates in India are not that cheap for the average Indian user..

Did I make any sense ? :confused:
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Yeah.... but at the exchange rates I just paid.... $500 will translate to about 24000INR! Wont it?
 
Yeah it'll be that much but for the average Indian Rs.24000 is a lot dearer and they don't have incomes comparable to say their US counterparts...Its a bit hard to explain...guessing economics is not my strongest point...
 
peanut48 said:
Yeah it'll be that much but for the average Indian Rs.24000 is a lot dearer and they don't have incomes comparable to say their US counterparts...Its a bit hard to explain...guessing economics is not my strongest point...
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I think what you really mean to say is the purchasing power of people in u.s is comparitively higher in U.S compared to India.

Regarding the iPhone in India. A majority of the consumers will refrain from buying it if it is sold with 2 yr contract like here in u.s. Traditionally, people in India are used to the flexibility in changing the service providers, free incoming calls + incoming SMS, cheap outgoing SMS. So, with contract its definitely not going to be the masses...but even if we consider the gadget-savvy people ...2 years is long time for them to hold on to one particular phone. They would rather prefer to upgrade to new models every other year.

Let us wait and see what Airtel has in mind...they do know how to market stuff.
 
antielectrons said:
Still cant get it in Spain .... 3 weeks after its "launch". Apple should concentrate on delivering what they have already promised first before frustrating any more potential customers... :mad:
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Yeah ... another one from Spain waiting to get an iphone ...I was nr. 80 at launch date now I´m nr. 60 in the list ..... great :( how things move on I´m lucky to get one in .... what ....new year ?

Saludos
 
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