iPhone lovers in India - Time to rejoice!!
Vodafone has been chosen to officially launch the iPhone in India, and the expected date is the first week of September. So there’s still a little more than 2 months of wait. Once the iPhone is launched in India, Im not sure how Vodafone will manage to meet the demands, unless the price the phone a little steeply, and according to the rumours, the iPhone will be launched at a price between INR 27,000 to INR 30,000.
Now that surely will take away some buyers. The owners will not be restricted to using services from Vodafone alone. It will be an unlocked phone and the users are free to use any operator apart from Vodafone.
Apple has expressed their concern that they are not very happy with this kind of agreement, and they’d wish if the phone was available with an exclusive operator. Im not sure how the ‘contract’ thing will work in India, as its not popular. Ideally, what Vodafone can do is, launch the phone for INR 8,000 and restrict the users to only use their services.
My guess is most people including me, would then opt for the iPhone. Lets wait and watch what Vodafone has in store for us. Though I still dont understand what the huge hyper over the iPhone is, but maybe we can address that issue sometime later.
AirTel & Vodafone both have the rights to sell the iPhone in India. There is speculation that AirTel will launch it on the 11th of July itself whereas Vodafone will come out with it in September. The dates are speculation.