Tag Archives: India

iPhone 3G India Pricing Confirmed

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As I expected, both Indian iPhone carriers have announced their pricing. As a subscriber of both networks, it was uncanny to me how the two communicated their plans to prospective customers. All website content, newsletter text and images have been identical. Apple must have their jewels in a very tight vice.

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.

India iPhone 3G pricing

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Hat tip to Angad for this article on Tech2.com. The news is also on Techtree.com and infotech.indiatimes.com.

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.

iPhone 3G Thoughts

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My last post demonstrated suspension of reason. The new iPhone does not do video calling. Exactly why, I’m not sure, but I just read an interview with a Nokia official who claimed that the primary reason for video calling not taking off—apart from the cost—was that it makes people look rather unflattering. Whatever.

So why should one buy the iPhone 3G? The reasoning is pretty simple, really. If you could justify the original iPhone to yourself, there’s no way this one will be any different. It’s cheaper. Additionally, you get 3G and GPS, making for a nicely rounded-out feature set. I don’t think there are too many GPS-enabled phones out there for $199. The new firmware brings third-party apps to the party, which should be fun. Jobs was smart to feature lots of free stuff that will be available in the App Store.

MobileMe sounds very nice indeed, but my data is increasingly—or near-totally—on the Google cloud now, and I wouldn’t want to pay money to move out from a free, and perfectly workable suite of services. I’d like to believe that Google will put out a syncing app for their services as well, but it may be wishful thinking, given the evident conflict of interest.

While GPS and all the possibilities that follow are nice, they won’t really make a big difference for us in the 2.5th world, i.e, no routing in Google Maps.

So it boils down to price. For the amount you’d pay for a typical feature-phone, you’ll soon be able to buy an iPhone. I’m curious about how Apple will enforce a single global price, given that in markets like India, carrier subsidies are not as big as they are in the USA. Both Vodafone and Airtel have announced their intent to bring the device to India.

The elephant in the room

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As with the impending doom of Apple, Microsoft, your hair and libido, consider this with some skepticism/denial/salt:

Sramana Mitra comments in an article on Forbes.com:

…Yet, India, for all its glory, is still the world’s back office. India’s tech industry is a “services” industry. The Indians don’t do the thinking. The customers do. India executes.

Lets all get together and have a panel discussion on the ejaculation-inducing Indian tech industry. We’ll invite that large grey guy with the long nose and teeth that look like tusks. He’s a downer, but we’re too busy giving everybody handjobs to care.

She goes on:

Most of the 4 million people that the industry employs have now “arrived.” They have breezed through the milestones that their fathers had to toil all their lives to reach. A phone. A watch. A TV. A car. A house.

They are complacent. They will not take risks. They have “outsourced” thinking to their customers.

The thinking may have been outsourced, but the soaring self-esteem is all home-grown. Hopefully, the swagger, sneer, stylus-operated phone and flat-front pants will compensate for a lack of ability for anything other than the job of a glorified foreman.

There’s more. The author quotes some Forbes stats on the growth in salaries in India. This will be the fifth consecutive year with hikes being above the 10% range. Yay for finally affording that loan for a 2BHK in Lokhandwala/Malad/Kandivli. However,

Assuming a 15% year-to-year salary hike rate, and a 2007 cost advantage of 1:3 in favor of India, if U.S. wages remain constant, India’s cost advantage disappears by 2015. Then what?

I never had a chance at being hired by TCS/Wipro/Infosys/Satyam. Thank fucking $DIVINITY.

Disclaimer: I have good friends in the IT/ITeS industry, and they’re all very intelligent people. Some of the very few, sadly.