If you feel that Apple iPhone 3G in India is priced a little too high, then you are certainly right. Apple’s pricing strategy for iPhones in India is yet another example of India being given a step motherly treatment by international corporations and Indian companies helping them for their own greed.

Let us first check out iPhone’s prices in two opposite countries, US and Hong Kong. I will return to you shortly why they are “opposite”.

In the US, iPhone 3G sells for $199 (Rs. 9700) for 8 GB version and $299 (Rs. 14,500) for the 16 GB version with which comes the carrier lock for 2 year with AT&T. Which means you can use AT&T network only and it costs about $20 (Rs.970) more per month than their other available plans.
In Hong Kong, you get an iPhone 3G officially unlocked at HK$ 5400 (Rs.34,000) for 8 GB and HK$ 6200 (Rs.39,000) for 16 GB. So you can buy plans and insert sim card of any network provider.

Now on one hand you get an iPhone real cheap in the US but end up paying more to your cellphone provider (who pays to Apple) every month and its the exact opposite in HK where the phone comes quite expensive upfront but you are then free to use any network provider you want. Two extreme opposites, right? Additionally in US with the iPhone plans AT&T provides frills like free access to internet on your phone via thousands of WiFi hotspots it has all over the country, Visual Voicemail, GPS, etc (which, by the way, are not available in India).

Now let us see whats on offer for us desis. 8 GB iPhone for Rs.30,000 and 16 GB for Rs.36,000 PLUS you can only use either Vodafone or Airtel on their exorbitant “iPhone plans”.

Take for example, Vodafone’s cheapest iPhone plan has minimum monthly rental of Rs.799 with which you get 250 free minutes and Rs.0.6 per minute for local calls; this plan falls flat when compared to Vodafone “Corp 299″ plan where monthly rental is Rs.299 only with just as many free calls (250) and cheaper calling rate of Rs.0.5/min. Roughly you pay Rs. (799 - 299) = 500 more every month being an iPhone user. Similar is the situation with Airtel. And of course, neither Airtel nor Vodafone has a single wifi hotspot anywhere in the country.

So we are being given the worst of both the worlds, that is: high cost iPhones, network lock and zero additional frills from the network providers.

The bottomline? In India you pay almost as much for a locked iPhone as it costs unlocked. You do not enjoy free WiFi, you do not enjoy basic iPhone services like Visual Voicemail or GPS and yet you pay more monthly fees to Vodafone or Airtel with no choice of another service provider.

Do send this to your friends and family in India and save them from burning holes in their pockets for nothing.

iPhone did launch in India, big bloggers blogged about it, there was this “midnight launch” but hardly any queues outside iphone shops and the general public’s response can be termed as lukeward at best.
The biggest factor that has kept people away from this gadget is the price, priced at Rs.32,000 it is twice the amount it is being sold for in the US, and in today’s age of internet everyone is aware about it - and not too happy either.
I will conclude this post with a link on iPhone discussion on a popular indian forum titled Iphone feature lack.

Vodafone has today started taking pre-registration information for potential customers interested in iPhone through its website http://vodafone.in
Although the title and the feature scream out ‘iPhone 3G’, there is a disclaimer at the bottom of the pre-registration page saying “Currently compatible only with 2G networks. Only select features and services are currently available in India.”

In our next article, we will help you decide the new iPhone expected in India suits your needs or not.