Indian telecom service providers don't subsidise IPhone, with fickle Indian consumer merrily switching between service providers and using multiple SIMs at the same time. Number of subscribers in Delhi now exceeds its population and Samsung is aggressively advertising its dual-SIM phone.
Last week, both Airtel and Vodafone launched iPhone 3Gs in India - months after global launch and few months ahead of new version from Apple. That made me wonder if Apple is on the right track in its India strategy. IPhone is no where close to a cult phone in India and Samsung, LG and Nokia are pushing their touch-phones at significantly lower price points. Apple probably needs to rethink its India strategy. Otherwise it may be the case of too little too late. Market skimming strategy works only if there is a large segment of early adopters. Besides that Apple needs to add India focused free downloadable content - Ringtones, caller tunes, themes, local language songs. How about a content partnership with IPL and bollywood? Following Google (YouTube tie up with IPL) is not bad if its good for business. Pre-install of Google Maps, Gmail/Rediff/Hotmail/Yahoo mail will help along with support for dual-SIM and extended battery life.
Side note - For a change, Apple is advertising Macs. I saw two full page ads in national newspaper - though only in the magazine section and that too in the end. Compare this with 1 minute prime time TV ad slots used by HP when it launched "HP Vectra" in India in the late 80s. Long way to go. The main hindrance is of course, price, distribution and support - at Rs 56,990, Mac is almost 2.5 times more expensive than a PC.
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