All you guys waiting for the iPhone to make an official entry will not have to wait much. Vodafone and Airtel have announced that they will be selling the new iPhone 3G in the Indian market. Both the operators are keeping mum on the pricing and availability of the phone but if our source is right, it will be out by September or October. You say the price? Expect it to be around Rs. 25000 mark (Locked of course).
One question I may ask to these operators is that will the users be getting some sort of data connection bundle with the phone?
PS: Gray market rules if you want to pick up an unlocked first generation iPhone.
Nope…It won’t cost you 25K……. The 3G version costs around 199USD….. roughly 9 grand…..
And the 3G facility will be of no use in India unless something happens with TRAI and the operators that is……… But i don’t see anything happening in the near future…..
And Gray market…..Stay away…You will be getting the first generation ones which is 2.5 times the price of the legal one……
And about unlocking…….. Jail breaking is illegal but can be done free of cost but some people charge 8 grand!!!!!!!!! :O Dat’s way too much for something that can be done for free…..
And remember…… You won’t be getting any updates if you Jail break the iPhone……
@Karthikeyan: I agree with the points you mentioned. But the thing is 3G can come in a year provided all the operators solve their spat with TRAI over spectrum allocation. Regarding the price. Yes it costs $199 in US but it is subsidized by AT&T. The rumors are that Apple will charge $400 for each iPhone sold there. And AT&T will recover the extra cost by way of plans which in the long run makes the iPhone 3G more expensive than its predecessor.
Jailbreak. Yes it can be done for free but not many people are well versred with technology. I have seen many people shelling out money for unlocking and they don’t really have qualms in spending it. I am not saying that iPhone 3G won’t be hacked but I expect more security in this phone than the previous one.
Hey Kunal,
It’s not 199USD after subsidized by AT&T. Actually as per the speech of Steve Jobs of Apple, the cost is gonna be the same i.e. USD 199 for all the 75 countries where iPhone 2.0 is gonna launch.
Let me know about the 3G technology and if this iPhone is gonna work in the Indian market i.e. GPRS platform or some like that or not. I’m eagerly awaiting for iPhone and wanted to have one in my hand.
Thanks
@Faruk: We would love if iPhone is priced around 10K. But on the flip side, think about the smartphones currently available in India through the operators. Most of them are priced more than 20K. We still wanna believe our source ;).
This iPhone will definitely work in India but until 3G comes, we have to stick GPRS/EDGE.