• Processor speed
• RAM
• All of iOS 5
• Voice Assistant(?)
• New form factor(?)

Cheaper iPhone 4S? Maybe. Why?

• Same new internals, old shell
• A slightly smaller screen doesn’t matter
• If it runs iOS 5 with all it’s features, why not?

I agree with Gruber that the “openness” argument with respect to the Apple iPad has about as much merit as it does applied to a modern motor vehicle. One is no longer able to pop the hood and tinker; there’s nothing left to tinker with. And automobiles are much more reliable, powerful, economical and efficient as a consequence.

I’ve spent the last ten years riding the only vehicle I own—a Yamaha RD350. It’s a two-stroke. It’s less efficient than most modern sedans. It smells and pollutes. It needs expert hands, love and care to fix (if you can find those hands). By necessity, I can tell what’s wrong with it by the way it moves and sounds. I can strip and rebuild it’s carburetors in 20 minutes. I could and have modified it to go faster, turn better and look the business. It’s “open” and it’s a giant pain in the ass.

I’ve used PCs for over 20 years. I’ve used DOS, OS/2, various versions and flavours of Windows, Linux and the BSDs. I can build a PC from scratch in 30 minutes, code if the situation is dire, remain on-call for tech support to friends and family and generally owe my gainful employment to the PC. Through the years my PCs have broken down, been upgraded, replaced, reformatted and tinkered with just for fun. My PCs are “open” and a giant pain in the ass.

These days, ET uses a MacBook, which she bought against my better judgement. My better judgement wasn’t. It has been a singularly prudent computer purchase. Three years, one dead hard disk and battery later, she still uses it every day. It’s rarely turned off or rebooted and has been around the country and halfway across the world with her more than once. Today, the home PC is in the best shape it’s ever been. Guess which one needs more tech support?

Nowadays, I commute on a tester Yamaha R15. It’s tiny, 4-stroke, fuel-injected, plastic, boy-racer red and has the old-school motorcycle cred of Lady Gaga. It’s also quick, reliable, safe, fun and frugal to the extent that I have money left over at the end of the month. I don’t want to give it back.

So I’m keeping my second iPhone and saving for the 3G iPad when it comes along. As applied to most people, complaints about it’s level of “openness” or lack thereof is just hypocrisy. We consume more than we create. Deal with it or learn to clean your own carbs.

You don’t have to have just one computer or just one motorcycle, but if I had to choose today, I’d probably choose to ride to work with a very tiny backpack for my lunch and iPad on a plastic rice-rocket.

Here’s the thing: in Mumbai, the voicemail number is 555, except it isn’t, and most of Airtel doesn’t know this. After a number of complaints, a mysterious call from an Airtel employee told me to use 567 instead. This works. Still no idea how to set a custom greeting.

So you now know your voicemail number. Great! Except that your iPhone doesn’t. It still thinks it’s 555. You tell it otherwise by punching in a USSD code on your phone dialpad thus:

*5005*86*567# (press “call”)

Now your iPhone knows it’s own voicemail number. Brilliant. Almost.

Here’s the other thing: the iPhone doesn’t have settings for “call divert” like other phones. That is, there are no explicit settings for whether the call should go to voicemail if unanswered, busy or out of coverage. The iPhone manual is also vague about this. However, since voicemail is a network feature, it’s possible to set options using network USSD codes, and generic GSM ones at that! What I used:

Send to voicemail if unanswered: **61*567#

Send to voicemail if out of coverage: **62*567#

I didn’t use this one, but it’s useful because you can then send any call to voicemail by simply pressing the lock button twice (busy signal):

Send to voicemail if busy: **67*567#

There’s a whole bunch of options to these well, so I’ll just link to the sources:

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2007/09/voicemail-hack.html

http://www.theunwired.net/?item=how-to-diverting-voice-calls-by-using-ussd-codes

The good news is that factory-unlocked iPhones are now going for what hacktivated ones used to. The premium is so minimal that there’s really no reason to save the cash and go through the cat-and-mouse routine with pwnage, hacktivation et al. I can confirm that the phones work as expected and will explicitly state that they are unlocked, once reset and connected to iTunes. Using a Vodafone SIM (an official iPhone 3G carrier), the phone also supports internet tethering out of the box. Baseband and firmware is the latest available.

Brilliant stuff. Ten points for Indian grey market enterprise.

Here’s hoping the next time round actually, finally allows background notifications.

In brief: I wouldn’t recommend an iPhone to anyone, anymore. It’s not worth the compromises, or the official price. It still makes some sense for me, since I mostly live on the Web and appreciate the touch interface. But 15 months and still no background data? Come. Fucking. On!

Update: Looks like a lot of you are having trouble with the lack of caller ID on the iPhone in India. If you’re jailbroken, try this link. It’s what I used. There’s also an Installer.app package that does the same thing, but I haven’t tested it.

And it gets better from there. One of the stories is about Airtel’s “techies” being super-confident that their built-in security measures will ensure that swapping SIMs remains an unattractive alternative for iPhones bought from Airtel. Their claim is that while it may be possible for “hackers” to use Airtel’s iPhone for voice calls, they will be left out in the cold for the new, Airtel-exclusive features including Airtel Live and Google.

I don’t even know where to begin with this article. It’s grossly inaccurate in some parts and utterly banal in others. From Airtel’s perspective, what it reads like: “You can buy it and put another SIM into it, but you won’t be able to access our overpriced ringtones, news alerts, wallpapers and assorted crap. Because that shit is on an internal network. So you can’t get at it from elsewhere. We call that security.”

Tech reportage at it’s finest: by the feeble-minded, for the feeble-minded.

There is some indication that first-gen iPhones should now be unlocked on Airtel and Vodafone. Can anyone confirm this?

All in all, I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth. They’re trying to drum up some hype with midnight availability, early bookings with part payment and availability in tony areas of town, but it just isn’t the same. You can’t wish a long line of eager customers into existence with a Rs 31,000 base price. Without 3G or GPS routing.

The executive summary: 8GB for Rs 31,000 (about $730) and the 16GB will retail for Rs 36,000 to 37,000 (around $870). This is without factoring in the accompanying voice/data plans.

I don’t know how credible these numbers are, but I would not be surprised if they are accurate. Why?

• There are no subsidy models in India (or if there are, they don’t amount to much)
• There are no alternative revenue streams for mobile providers that could potentially offset a handset subsidy (VAS revenue-sharing is cream, not bread). Apple doesn’t give carriers a cut in the App Store/iTunes.
• High-end handsets launched by carriers have traditionally carried insane price tags.
• The most recent high-end launch by Airtel—the HTC Touch Diamond—retails for Rs 27,500.
• BlackBerry devices, despite requiring relatively expensive data plans, retail for a minimum of Rs 24,000.

From a brand/positioning standpoint, it would be unjust to price the iPhone 3G lower than the average BlackBerry or HTC handset. Vodafone and Airtel have painted themselves into a corner. I don’t anticipate big sales numbers—quite likely less than the erstwhile grey market for first-gen iPhones. My fervent prayer remains that I am all wrong about this, but I can’t think of another scenario, without forsaking logic.

Winner: Apple. Hustler: Carrier. Loser: User.