Not Another Mobile Phone Blog

According to Indiatimes Infotech, the iPhone 3g will be coming to BSNL by December 2008. The iPhone 3G was launched in India on August 22nd on AirTel and Vodafone. Also, BSNL will be launching its 3G network in India in the month of December same date as the launch date of the iPhone 3G on BSNL. This is really cool, considering the fact that, though Vodafone and AirTel launched the 3G iPhone, there was no 3G network in India to exploit the 3G capabilities of the iPhone and when BSNL launches it in December they would have their 3G network up and running, hopefully. But there is also a news in the market that, 3G network in India will be voice focused and not data focused. Are you kidding me??? 3G has to be data focused so that people can enjoy rich multimedia and internet services on the go. I hope this voice focus of the 3G network is some kind of rumor because Indians don’t want to feel unhappy once again. There is no news on BSNL’s pricing of the 3G iPhone, but I gues it will be less than the price point at which the iPhone 3G was launched initially.

In its move to tackle the consumer disappointment that happened when the iPhone 3G’s prices were announced, Vodafone has plans to lower down the iPhone prices plus the company has tied up with banks so that people can buy the “Costly” iPhone 3G on EMI, good move. Vodafone has tied up with Axis and Barclays and will make the iPhone available in six or twelve equal monthly installments and ICICI Bank is also on the line to sign a contratc with Vodafone. The banks are also benefiting from this as users have to buy the iPhone using the credit card of these banks only but the interest rate on the credit card EMI will be lower than what they will pay on normal credit card bills. It seems that Vodafone has realized that cost factor attached to the iPhone will hamper the sales and that is the reason the company is coming up with schemes within few days of the launch….is AirTel sleeping or is just overconfident???

iPhone 3G made its debut in India 3 days back on AirTel and Vodafone leaving people sad and unhappy. If you are a mobile phone hacker and you don’t fantasize about hacking an iPhone then your life is waste, this is what they say in the world of mobile phone hacking. By the way with iPhone 3G launched in India, hackers are working towards how to unlock this baby so that the users are not stuck to a single service provider and the phone runs on multiple carriers. According the Engadget Mobile, AirTel has specified that, “Even the most deadly hackers on the planet won't be able to crack the codes that support the iPhone's AirTel applications with rival company SIMs”. Also, AirTel has worked along with Apple to develop operator specific iPhone applications. It seems that, AirTel’s and Apple’s relationship is pretty strong and both the companies are focusing on putting a brake on the proliferation of unlocked 3G iPhones in the Indian Market.

Vodafone slashes the price of iPhone 3G
According to Cellpassion, after looking at the response of Indian consumers, Vodafone has brought down the prices by Rs 2,000. Now 8GB iPhone will cost you Rs. 29,000 and 16GB will cost you Rs. 34,000; still costly I have to say. AirTel, till now, had not said anything about slahing the prices of the iPhone 3G but looking at what Vodafone has done, I don't think AirTel would wait too long to slash the prices of the 3G iPhone.

The iPhone 3G was showcased yesterday by AirTel here in Bangalore at their HQ on Banerghatta Road and today the company is launc9ing it is six main cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata and this number is going to increase to 65 cities across India.
iPhone 3G has dampened the spirits of Indians because of the high cost attached to it. AirTel has said that they are not making any profits by selling the iPhone 3G, they are just selling the network services. The Indian pricing of the iPhone has been fixed by Apple and not the service provider, which I don’t believe. Anyways, but one thing is sure that the service providers will earn a lot of money from the data services they would be providing the iPhone users in India. As you all know that, both, AirTel and Vodafone opened up pre-registrations for the iPhone 3G. According to AirTel they have received more than 200,000 pre-bookings but even they are not sure how many of these people who have pre-booked the iPhone will actually buy one. Is AirTel also thinking that the pricing has let most of the prospective buyers down?? By the way 2G iPhone is already penetrated the Indian market by taking the grey market route and there are 30,000 unlocked 2G iPhones running on AirTel’s own network. Will this affect Apple and AirTel’s relationship in India? Will Apple ask AirTel to shut down these phones? These are some of the questions that keep haunting me.