Its official ! iPhones to be Niche gadgets in India

iPhone is coming to India..

Continuing its Global uniform Pricing Strategy, Apple Inc. will have similar pricing for its New iPhone 3G in India, that means $700+ for 8GB version and $800+ for 16GB version (as announced by Vodafone India)

Apple is launching its 3G iPhones in India on Friday the 22^nd of August after its global launch in July. So how will be its launch and what are the peoples’ expectations from Apple iPhone. Let’s try to analyze it, in terms of its technology, pricing, the services it will be offering to its customers and competition from the grey market.

I remember, when Apple Inc. launched its much hyped iPhone in US market, I was wondering what is so special in iPhone, maybe the entire Mac machine has been squeezed to convert it into a small Macintosh computer with phone feature! So I learnt about iPhone from various websites, and blogs. I was unable to get a feel of iPhone, until my brother in US, bought it (with AT&T as its service provider). After getting the first hand feel of the product, I found it quite interesting to navigate and surf the web with unique flow-touch technology, provided your home or office is equipped with Wi-Fi.

Looking at a really big market such as India, there is an ample scope for Apple Inc. to sell its iPhone through organized sector. The new phone is coming with 3G feature, (high speed data transfer over mobile phones).

Else where in the world, Apple Inc. has tied up with one service provider but in India and two more countries, it has tied up with two service providers – Vodafone and Airtel (other two countries are Australia and Italy), so people in India will have two options of service providers to choose from.

In US, the new iPhone 3G, is subsidized for customer by AT&T, is around $ 199 + taxes, bundled with the phone plan and services from AT & T for 2 years contract and having a per monthly bill of around $90 including taxes and a regular officially unlocked phone without service provider, from Apple is around $ 600. But in India, it is an entirely different story. The price Vodafone and Airtel are in the range of $ 700 for 8GB and $ 810 for 16GB. Not sure if they will be offering an open iPhone or with a bundled plan as the price of iPhone is already $ 700 (for 8GB) and customer might have to pay in excess of 1000 INR per month as a bill, then it is bound to become a Niche product, where Nokia and Samsung will have a chance of sneaking in to offer customers their version of 3G phones fully loaded with features.

On 3G Spectrum front, the DOT (Department of Tel.) has not even begun the process of auctioning the 3G spectrum, and the controversies surrounding it are immense. The current service providers of iPhone cannot actually guarantee, whether they will be able to provide services based on 3G. It would be weird to imagine a 3G iPhone without 3G!

The customers will probably have to wait for 7-8 months before their iPhones 3G get a power of 3G services in India. In the meantime they will have to go for EDGE services (3 times faster than GPRS) wherever available in India and the cost of accessing EDGE is also high.

On the other hand, the national service providers like BSNL and MTNL are sure to get guaranteed 3G spectrum, but they don’t have iPhones to offer!

How iPhone works?

An Apple iPhone is an Internet dependent phone, it has software driven controls and touch screen menu functions. Without Internet, it is like an iPod. Moreover if you have a Wi-Fi at home, you can enjoy it like a very small computer and do the web surfing. Its software, iTunes, gets regularly updated, hence the iPhone’s internal software gets updated through iTunes. For that you need to have a continuous broadband internet connection, and Wi-Fi is a must, (unless service providers come out with an affordable 3G based network). The broadband internet connection – unlimited plan, will the best suited to get it configured through Wi-Fi. With India having a base of slower broadband connection (256 Kbps), it takes few hours to get the entire software updated from the official Apple’s iTunes website.

The 2 MP camera cannot record videos but you can certainly take a good quality 2 MP image, even during nights, but it has no flash.

We cannot hear online streaming radios on iPhone but you can hear music only through iTunes, connected to Internet connection through Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth feature is present, but I had a trouble in pairing my Nokia phone with Apple iPhone. After understanding it, I came to know that bluetooth function can be used only for bluetooth handsfree !

Whenever you will connect the iPhone to sync with your Windows iTunes on a PC or a Laptop, it will do the entire backup, I guess this feature should be custom based with the option of entire backup or just fresh sync.

With the current internet access plans of EGPRS (EDGE) from Airtel and Vodafone, one will have to go for an unlimited EGPRS (EDGE) internet access data plan from the service providers. Not sure if they have an unlimited plan. The rates are also high. I am unsure, how much time will it take to open an entire web page, when accessing internet through normal GPRS and what about if someone is interested in watching YouTube videos…!

Mailing feature

The Push Mail feature is a new feature in iPhone’s 3G. It has Microsoft Exchange. Unlike corporate blackberry, that has an overseas network operating centers, having an encryption strength of 256-bits, which was in the eyes of storm of the Government of India, as the encryption strength beyond 40-bits is difficult to crack in case of any security issue. Apple’s iPhone’s Push Mail feature will face the same music in case the cipher strength (encryption level) is more than 40-bits, if it comes in the eyes of the Government, thereby loosing out on a profitable IT corporate market and other related markets.

The New GSM service partners in India will get a first hand experience of after sales support from Apple Inc., when people will demand support services.

Let me summarize some features of iPhone in India if you want to own one

• It is the best phone in terms of features and ease of navigation of menu.
• Great Phone for web surfing with desktop type surfing with Safari web browser, hearing music, and watching high resolution videos on widescreen iPod.
• The Flow touch feature is awesome, and the ease at which you can flip photo images is like rotating a globe type gallery or you can zoom the images by your finger, like stretching a rubber band with your two fingers!!!
• The 2 MP (Mega pixel) camera is without flash, but the quality of image is very good, but cannot create video.
• The entire phone gets updated through iTunes. You can synchronize your song collection with your computer through iTunes.
• Enterprise features such as Microsoft Exchange is present.
• It has a scientific calculator, works just like a real one.
• iPhone 3G is like iPod without Internet. You need to have Wi-Fi at home. It is an internet dependent phone.
• iPhone 3G is a phone which is meant for 3G networks, but none of the current service provider has been granted 3G spectrum. People will have to go for EGPRS (EDGE plans from Vodafone and Airtel).
• Not sure if service providers will provide an actual GPS service and not just based on cell phone tower location technology, a lot more services will be missing from iPhone 3G India.
• No Flash or Java support
• Its more or less customized for North America

Don’t try to load third party softwares in the Apple iPhone, it will screw the entire iPhone. Let’s hope, everyone gets a feel of iPhone in India and we need to see, what HTC, Nokia and Samsung, 3G phones are planning for iPhone.

All the views expressed in here, are my personal observations.