It seems that Apple has woke up from its deep slumber and their marketing teams have come to their senses. A week after Vodafone (Hutch) had announced that it will be launching the Iphone in India officially by the year end, Airtel sprung into action. Bharti was able to negotiate a similar deal with Apple and now its basically who launches first.
Whether its Airtel or Vodafone, only time will tell. But whoever it is, they will have the first mover advantage. The Iphone Indian launch however does come with a few strings attached. For the price of the official launch, its expected that both the Airtel and the Vodafone versions shall be locked to their respective operators, so MTNL and IDEA subscribers can cry. However the way the Indian market works, the Iphone from these 2 shall be so expensive that it will be cheaper to just import an AT&T locked baby and unlock it free via the huge variety of resources the Internet has to offer.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Can you suggest –> is it better to buy from India or import from US ?
June 7th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I would suggest, wait a little.
When the iphone is lauched in India , grey market prices will fall too. Also Indian editions will carry warranty and wont need to be unlocked.