iPhone comes to India

“Your wait is about to end! iPhone 3G arrives on 22 August. 8GB model is for Rs 31,000 and 16GB for Rs 36,100… Confirm your booking by paying Rs 10,000…” And it's not Vodafone that's going all out to promote the phone, Airtel launched the Apple iPhone 3G at its centre in Salt Lake at 11.20 p.m. on Thursday. Members of the Press were invited to interact with the “first celebrity customer”! How would representatives of these companies react when something like Richard Branson's WhiteKnightTwo arrives in India? Yes, customers in the USA drooled for months before iPhone 3G became available and they queued up during the wee hours, speaking geeky terms. Here it's more to do with the “show off” factor. The question is why should anybody pay Rs 31,000 for a cellphone that was priced at $199 (8 GB model) on 9 June in the USA? Mr Sridhar Rao, CEO of Vodafone East said: “The phone has been designed basically for people belonging to the high-income group and we hope that it will attract our customers to buy the product.” Echoing similar view, a spokesperson of Airtel said: “Not only the model but there are certain enhanced features in this iPhone which will compel the users to buy this model.”