EXCLUSIVE: iPhone 3G Out in India Next Month!

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IPhone, at what price?
Ever since Airtel announced the launch of the Apple iPhone 3G, the market has been abuzz with speculation about pricing.

It's official now. Airtel will bring the iPhone 3G to India on August 22nd. Vodafone's Chief Marketing Officer, Harit Nagpal, confirms that Vodafone too will launch the iPhone on the 22nd of this month.

What ever happened to Vodafone's 15-day advantage over Airtel's launch date? Nagpal denies any such thing and adds that further 'media information is on its way'.

Ever since Airtel announced the launch of the Apple iPhone 3G yesterday, the market has been abuzz with speculation about pricing. Even though we reported earlier that Airtel was planning to price the handset at an aggressive Rs.12,000, we talked to a source in Delhi who told us that Airtel will price the iPhone 3G anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000.

Another source close to a major network carrier has told us that there is no way it would make sense for either Airtel or Vodafone to price the iPhone 3G at Rs 12,000. "Given the duty component and other taxes, it won't be viable for any service provider to price it at Rs 12,000. Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 should be more like it," he said.

Moving on to the pricing at parallel markets, our source at Heera Panna, Mumbai, is offering the iPhone 3G for Rs. 55,000. He also claims to have sold 12 pieces till date. Another seller in Irla, Mumbai, has the 16GB iPhone 3G for Rs 32,000.
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Source: MSN | TechTree
 
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It is the same site that once said "from their sources" that it will be 13k. Basically, its all bullshit and its just one of their stunts to attract more visitors to their site.
 
This seems CRAP and utter BS! Still i dont trust... if they are gonna realse this for this rate nobody gonna buy it.

vb86 said:
^^

31k for 8gb and 37k for 16gb? that certainly cant be justified..
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The 8 GB version of the iPhone 3G will cost Rs. 31,000, while the 16 GB version will cost between Rs. 36,000 and Rs. 37,000.

These prices are not inclusive of the plan these phones will come bundled with.
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I don't trust that crappy website. Earlier those same morons said it would be available for 13k.now the price has gone up to 31k and that too "not inclusive of the plan these phones will come bundled with". if apple wants to sell this phone at this price in india then why not sell it unlocked through apple store?? why limit it to airtel and vodaphone??
 
exactly what i was thinking.. at these prices, they shouldnt be sim locked and should be available directly through apple. users shouldnt be bound to any contract/plans either.
 
What a joke!!!!!!! What are those guys thinking about Indians??!!

Rs.37000 for a phone which doesnt have even basic features like Video Recording and MMS!

This is iJoke or iCrap.
 
Well the big guys at apple consider and treat India like a lifestyle product market more than a consumer electronics market, hence they try and price their products atrociously.
 
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I would still not trust these people. Lets hear it officially from Airtel/Vodafone. However, if it is true, bye bye iPhone :)
 
lifestyle BALLS!

Well no good option than w8ing for its actual date ie. 22nd of this month.

All sites are crap who try to prove that they have leaked the info
 
Hey guys, no need to get worked up. Put yourself in the place of an Airtel/Vodapahone product manager and think this through.

What is your primary purpose? Sell more phones or profit? Profit. So you can sell less for a higher prices or more for lesser price. The point is the profit.

Here Apple is trying to reach ten million so it could have an influence in eventual pricing but its not unusual for companies to price higher in India and adopt the cream strategy because of the wide disparities in income levels here, as in the market for a product at a particular price is limited and this demographic is not price sensitive so you can increase prices and make more profit by marketing as a lifestyle luxury product. The product doesn't necessarily have to be a luxury lifestyle product but by pricing higher, limiting accessibility and appropriate advertising you position it as such.

What is the demographic and numbers for smart phones in India and the numbers in different price ranges, what feature set is sold for what price, what is the sweet spot? Targeting affluent college students, young professionals, business users, luxury lifestyle market, a mix or all? All this will impact your final price. At 15k the market size may be 100,000 and you make 1k profits, at 20k it will go to 50,000 and you make 6k profits and 25k to 25000 and you make 10k profits. Now people who are in the 25k band may not be price sensitive and may pay 30k+ for an 'exclusive' product, the product doesn't have to be exclusive, you can make it so by pricing high.

So all these factors come into play. Then there is also usage, since an iPhone without data is useless operators will be expecting higher ARPUs from iPhone users, and that might tempt them to price more reasonably and reach a wider market and make money from services.

So if you were a product manager what would you do? I would price at 15k/20k for 8/16 GB to reach the highest number of users and I suspect this is about the price range it will be launched at. The economy is also not doing too well, the IT sector which is a big demand driver is already feeling pain and with the US/Western banks in disarray who form a large chunk of Indian technology companies market it will get worse in the short term. So outrageous prices now will not cut it.
 
If this turns out to be wrong i am suing that crappy website:@ :@

Pat said:
^^ +1.. Its the same site whose sources once quoted 13k and not it is 31k. Lol!
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they will now claim it was a typo:rofl: :rofl:
 
raul said:
Hey guys, no need to get worked up. Put yourself in the place of an Airtel/Vodapahone product manager and think this through.

What is your primary purpose? Sell more phones or profit? Profit. So you can sell less for a higher prices or more for lesser price. The point is the profit.

Here Apple is trying to reach ten million so it could have an influence in eventual pricing but its not unusual for companies to price higher in India and adopt the cream strategy because of the wide disparities in income levels here, as in the market for a product at a particular price is limited and this demographic is not price sensitive so you can increase prices and make more profit by marketing as a lifestyle luxury product. The product doesn't necessarily have to be a luxury lifestyle product but by pricing higher, limiting accessibility and appropriate advertising you position it as such.

What is the demographic and numbers for smart phones in India and the numbers in different price ranges, what feature set is sold for what price, what is the sweet spot? Targeting affluent college students, young professionals, business users, luxury lifestyle market, a mix or all? All this will impact your final price. At 15k the market size may be 100,000 and you make 1k profits, at 20k it will go to 50,000 and you make 6k profits and 25k to 25000 and you make 10k profits. Now people who are in the 25k band may not be price sensitive and may pay 30k+ for an 'exclusive' product, the product doesn't have to be exclusive, you can make it so by pricing high.

So all these factors come into play. Then there is also usage, since an iPhone without data is useless operators will be expecting higher ARPUs from iPhone users, and that might tempt them to price more reasonably and reach a wider market and make money from services.

So if you were a product manager what would you do? I would price at 15k/20k for 8/16 GB to reach the highest number of users and I suspect this is about the price range it will be launched at. The economy is also not doing too well, the IT sector which is a big demand driver is already feeling pain and with the US/Western banks in disarray who form a large chunk of Indian technology companies market it will get worse in the short term. So outrageous prices now will not cut it.
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If I was the manager who had to make a decision, I would have given the consumers two choices:

a: iPhone 3G without a contract for 25k plus OR

b: iPhone with a contract and plan-lock for about 16k and monthly plans starting from 800 bucks including unlimited Edge. To circumvent the risk of laws not being so strict in India and to stop people from breaching contract, collect a deposit of around 5-10k which would be deducted from monthly bills.

Everyone keeps saying AT&T can subsidize as they earn more from monthly rentals. Although its not totally wrong, but thinking about it AT&T also has to pay more than Airtel or Vodafone in India, be it for the infrastructure setup/maintenance or salaries of employees working for them. Not to forget the average annual income of people in US. So it would be only fair if we don't compare the two markets as they are completely different.
 
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