Just a quick question to all you folks -
What should have been the price for the
iPhone in your opinion ?
It is speculated that
Apple sells the phone to operators at around 400 dollars. Add import duty of 25% to that and some markup +12% VAT and it is not too far from Rs 31,000.
Also remember, Apple being apple does not listen to advice from its partners (wrong in my opinion). So both Vodafone & Airtel could not decide the price. Secondly both are making about Rs 500 profit on the handset. Both dont have any choice but to bank on people using their GPRS services (in the absence of 3G) and try to make money on the phone. And using GPRS is not that great.
I for one do not believe that Airtel & Vodafone are worried that the iphone is not selling. They have nothing to lose......
For all of you who believe that it should have been a contract system like the US/UK or elsewhere - do you sincerely believe we have the legal framework for contract enforcement ?
Also buying a subsidized phone & tying yourself to a 2 year contract is equivalent to buying a phone on installments ! This option is already available anyway isn't it ?
Having said all that, I have no clue how the phone SHOULD have been priced & sold here in India
As an aside -
Strangely, one thing the iphone is not being marketed here is that it is an absolutely AWESOME internet device.
I know this because, I have an iphone 2G and have been using it for the past 4 months now.
It is so good as an internet device, that I have stopped using my
laptop at home, once I come home from office in the evening. All browsing in the evenings (including reading this forum

is on the phone
But again there are 2 pre-requisites for this - good broadband & wi-fi.
And dont believe all those who say lack of flash is a problem.....It is not.
cheers.
- Abhijeet