Apple Store in India

Reports suggest that on Monday a deal was closed between Apple and Reliance which would allow the Indian telecom giant to open 10 Apple stores officially dubbed as 'iStore by Reliance Retail' across the country.

It is speculated that the first store would open in Bagalore before the Diwali festival i.e. the month of October. Following this deal India would soon join the league of 6 other countries privileged enough to have an Apple Store.

Although its worth mentioning that Apple already has in place a wide chain of resellers across the the second most populous country in the world. In case you are wondering where to find an Apple reseller, you can visit this site and select India from the 'Find a Reseller' drop down menu.
Or you can also call the toll free number 1800 425 4646 or SMS 'sales' to 54646.

Happy Shopping :)

Apple to release 8Gb model in India

Reports suggests that Apple will enter India's exploding mobile phone market this september with the humble 8GB model with an unreasonably high price tag of around Rs 28000.

With iPhone prices being slashed in European and American market, its likely that within weeks iPhone would be available for Rs 16000 or so in the sprouting iPhone gray market in India.

iPhone official release in India might actually increase the gray market sales, for consumers won't see any point in spending almost twice as much money for a legal model which is no different than the unlocked ones. Only difference being that they won't be able to upgrade their phone's software.

One might think, 'Why the hell would I wan't to upgarde my iPhone's software? I never had to do it for my Nokia or any other phone I ever had'.

iPhone Update 21st Apr

Apple To Bring 8GB iPhone To India For Rs 28000
News Locale - Gulbarga,Karnataka,India
The Business Standard reports that iPhone in India will be unveiled by Vodafone, which recently entered the Indian market with its acquisition of Hutch. ...

iPhone Underground
Foreign Policy (subscription) - USA
Nokia, for instance, recently found that more than 50 percent of users in India share or want to share a phone. Mobile-phone companies appear to be getting ...

Vodafone to launch iPhone in India - and Australia?
iTWire - Australia
India's Business Standard newspaper reports that Vodafone will launch the iPhone in India in the first week of September and quotes Apple ...

Vodafone will reportedly carry iPhone in India in September
Ars Technica - Boston,MA,USA
That day may be coming soon, though, since Rediff is reporting that the iPhone will be coming to India in September of this year and that Vodafone will be ...

Create iPhone news alert

If you are reading this blog then you probably be interested in getting the lastest news on iPhone as and when it happens. Wouldn't it be nice, if instead of searching on the internet you get news directly in your mailbox.
Google News offers a service called 'News Alert'. If you are already using it, great but if have no idea what I am talking about. Google defines their service as "Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic."

Some hany uses of Google News Alert include :

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Searching the internet for clues to probable release date of iPhone in India seemed very frustrating and tiresome. Since the day I registered a news alert with google news I never had to search for news, instead any 'iPhone India' related news directly came to my inbox as and when it was published. Registering a news alert is as simple as it can get. All you have to do is to fill a simple form with just four fields : Your search term ; Type of news(news/blog/web/etc.) ; How Often (As it happens/daily/weekly) ; and finally your email address. Thats it.

Below is how I filled it. and here are the email alerts I recieves lately :I love this Google service just like most google services.Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Video of iPhone on Hutch network

If are one those who are still skeptical about unlocked iPhone supporting all networks in India, see this video of an unlocked Iphone on Hutch (now Vodafone) network.

Unlocked iPhones in India

Like I mentioned in the previous post, there are many sites that are selling unlocked versions of the Apple iPhone in India. Here's an exhaustive list of some of the sites I came across.

• www.iphonenirvana.net : Rs 28,990
• www.gadgets.in : Rs 24,994
• www.ebay.in : Rs 20,000 to 31,000

If you don't want to buy online you can always pay a visit to the Delhi's Palika Bazaar or the Heera Panna shopping complex in Mumbai or other similar markets in your locality.
I would suggest you to wait till iPhone is officially released and then compare the prices of the legal model with unlocked model following which you'll be in a better position to take the right decision about buying the iPhone.

iPhone to be released in India

Or atleast thats what I hope.

Heard the buzz that iPhone will probably be released in India around September of this year. Which is not too bad, since I wasn't expecting it any earlier. If the 'buzz' is to be believed, Vodafone would be the exclusive GSM service provider for the iPhone in India and the price of the 'Jesus' phone as some may like to call it would be around Rs 28000 thats like $700 dollar or so.

The current market price of iPhone in US is between $400-$500. I am not sure why there is such a big difference between expected indian price and the current US price, probably its customs and all that crap but still parting with Rs 28000 won't be easy . Specially when cheaper unlocked models of the iPhone are already available in the gray market for Rs 23000 to Rs 25000.

Speaking of unlocked iPhones, aren't they illegal to sell. I have seen some sites publically advertising unlocked iPhones. Either Apple is too lazy to confront them or perhaps Apple thinks there won't be enough buyers for unlocked phones as such phones cannot connect to iTunes to get firware upgrades. Trying that would again lock those phones and render them useless.

I hope they do release the iPhone this September and when they do it, they better keep the prices reasonable. (I guess Rs 20000 would be reasonable for the 8GB version)