Craze over iPhone – Is it justified?
The entire Indian blogosphere is buzzing with iPhone price announcement (from Vodafone)- most of them seems pissed off.
Indian mobile operators have their own reason to substantiate the Rs. 31K price for iPhone – In US, iPhone is sold to operators for $300, they in turn take a hit but in the long term will monetize via data usage – the same may not happen in India, because of lack of 3G infra.
Here is the summary of the pricing from Vodafone and Airtel:
- One needs to pay an advance of Rs 10,000 to confirm your booking (Airtel is charging Rs. 5K).
- 8GB & 16GB models, priced at Rs 31,000 ($710) and Rs 36,100 ($820) respectively
- Airtel is even planning for a midnight launch on Aug 22nd.
It’s too early to say operators may/may not have a tough time selling the product (remember, it’s still a niche product, a show-off, tool-to-grab-attention - so initial adopters will still embrace the product.
Moreover, isn’t pricing of a product directly proportional to the user interest (aspirational branding)? Unless there is a demand-supply gap, where is the “niche-ness” (heard of Zara’s pricing strategy??
What surprises about the entire iPhone saga is HTC’s lack of aggressive advertising – they have 1 TVC which sucks badly and apart from that, I haven’t yet seen any other marketing campaign.
What do you think can potentially break this crazy pricing? – an ulocked iPhone (the earlier version was available for 19K in the gray market)?
Have a look at which part of India is searching for iPhone
Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi.
Recommended Read: HTC vs. iPhone, Price of 3G Phones in India,
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Complete useless hype for iphone..nobody will buy at this cost..Bloody 200 USD phone are sold for 800 USD in india..suck up
Ashish – If I put different pieces of the puzzle together, looks like bangalore is becoming the new “show off capital” of India
move over Delhi!
Hey Alok
I can surely bet that Delhites (all the punjabi businessmen) will buy iphone first than the so-called IT capital!
All the expensive car models are first bought in places like Ludhiana, Panipat and then get some traction in ’service’ class of Bangalore!
What’s your take?
Absolutely Ashish, totally agree on that
I’ve been born and brought up in Delhi, and I know what is the scene in Delhi. No offense to anybody, but Bangalore is not (and probably will never be) the show off place. I do not think that show-off is for the working middle-class SE janta
And yeah, I just went and booked an iphone yesterday, and by no means it is a total flop show. I was told that 16GB iphone white was overbooked, and I’m supposed to get mine by around tuesday.
It was definitely not like the US (where people thronged the gates of AT&T stores to book one iphone), but sure wasn’t bad either.
noo….ashish..u dont know the situation in bangalore..banglore has the best of everything and delhi does not!!! so you are wrong!!!!
@Alok
Well, the data[*] says “show off capital” of Delhi > Mumbai > Bangalore. As expected
@Ashish
People are insanely crazy over Rajani Sarrr. Is it justified? Its quiet subjective.. depends on who you ask.
Anyway, I’m glad i took the risk and got an iphone when it was 400$
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
[*]http://google.com/trends?q=iphone&ctab=0&geo=IN&date=all&sort=0
hi
if you feel iphone 3G is overpriced then go to http://overpricediphoneindia.wordpress.com/ and register your Disappointment.
You nailed it Ashish. The guys at HTC somehow knew that the iPhone is screwed in India. We can ‘connect the dots’ now.
The profit margins in the iPhone have put the food and beverages industry to shame. I have heard (from abhinit) that one can go to Malaysia, buy an iPhone and come back, and it would still turn out to be cheaper. (Besides you won’t even need to jailbreak it)
Hi Guys,
If the price is 31000 and 36000 for 8GB and 16GB respectively, then i am damn sure it will be a flop show for Steve Jobs in indian market.
People in india are not much aware of the latest technology what US people are crazy about, we need a phone with good qulity.. since I phone has got good features like Ipod, multi finger touch.. people are much satisfied with this..
So what i suggest is, give us the basic phone with Ipod and multi touch technology, we do not need the internet device.. we have got so many cyber cafe around to browse.. so if price is 12000 to 16000 deffenetly it will be a good show for Apple in india.
All the best for Apple..
[...] Source: Reuters | Airtel | Pluggd [...]
[...] can’t have enough of the iPhone! Every blog that I’ve been reading regularly is talking about it and crying fowl over its pricing. iPhone is priced at 31K and 36K for 8Gb and 16Gb versions [...]
I have personally met almost 8-10 people in Delhi alone who first bought the first version of iPhone from grey market for about Rs.25000.
Since the nes of new iPhone has come, they had been trying to sell their older versions for around Rs.15-20K. They were not even getting Rs.8000 for their older version. But as Ashish has rightly said that it’s a show off ool, I strongly feel that these guys will either buy this costlier version (without even worring about the fine print that 3G facility can be used only abroad) or they will again try to get their hands on the 2nd. versions available in the grey market.
Yet, another breaking news is that Apple has been sued by a customer just yesterday over iPhone’s reception issue.
I do no think one has to be so cynical about iphone price. All of
did spend the same price for O2, Blackberry
and Communicators. I m not a Punjabi but
will have one. It is so very useful for a
media professional like me in every sense.
Buddies wait you all would has it soon.
Its not about being cynical on the price point. It’s about the much created hype of 3G connectivity which is still noit avaiulable in India. And when one needs to connect only to internet, then why to go for costly phone like this which has other so many issues all over the world. Why not phones from any other good brand which are not so costly but with good connectivity etc.
I bought the iPhone from US for $400 quite sometime back and I absolutely love this phone. It totally deserves every bit of hype its getting.
However, the price premium on it in India is unreasonable. At this price range, the Nokias and HTCs can compete with better features/hardware and while iPhone scores on the wow factor of user interface, that is already been copied by everyone else. The experience can only take you that far, it can’t kill the competition with this price tag.
[...] the phone was launched, only 10 people actually bought the phone (we did questioned the craze over iPhone and whether it’s justified or [...]