gauravsuneja
macaddict
Ok, this might sound a bit weird. But I am going to try to explain why one should be buy iPhone 3G for Rs.31,000 ($720) if he is from India. And why he should no look for reasons to buy iPhone 3G for Rs.8,500 ($199) in the US and bring it to India hoping that it would be unlocked and jailbroken easily. Here is my reasoning..
Before I put it all up, I would like to reiterate that I’m not new to this iPhone world. I had bought the 1st gen iPhone way back in Nov 2007 and have been using the unlocked version right from then. I sold it in June 2008 for Rs.16,000 ($400) expecting that iPhone 3G might be priced less than $200 and I thought, I would then buy it in the US and bring it back to India. Then I bought another one from eBay on 11th July when I realized that iPhone 3G is subsidized only to AT&T customers and its officially going to come to India very soon. And just 3 days back I bought iPhone 3G locked to Airtel India and was amongst the first buy iPhone 3G in Bangalore, India
, read more. I have been using this awesome awesome 3G version from past 3 days now and I am totally convinced that this iPhone 3G should be bought in India and through Airtel/Vodafone only. And why 31k is justified fully. Let me begin:
1. iPhone 3G costs Rs.31,000 ($720) in India. The price is almost the same in any other country where iPhone has been released and is not subsidized by a local Service Provider.
2. iPhone 3G is the cheapest in the US @ Rs.8,500 ($199). This is because of one big reason. AT&T has the exclusive right to sell iPhone 3G in the US and one has to commit for a 2 year contract before purchasing iPhone in the US. Now what does this mean, let me explain:
* On an average mobile phone users have to commit for 1 to 2 year contract with a service provider to get mobile instruments at a subsidized rate. This helps the service provider and the instrument maker to recover the cost in splits over a longer time duration.
* On an average, a mobile user will have to pay $40-$60 per month for 2 years minimum, if he buys iPhone 3G from AT&T. Here is the rate plan on AT&T website, read AT&T plans (type 33311 as zip code if asked).
So if we take an average of $40 per month which Rs.1720, it comes to Rs.20640 per year. Here you are paying around Rs.8,500($199) + Rs.20,640($480) = Rs.29,197($679) at the end of first year. And this is not the end of it, you will have to keep paying till you want to use iPhone 3G.
3. You must be thinking, why should I commit to pay AT&T for 2 years. I can very well ask my cousin/friend living in the US to buy iPhone @ Rs.8,500($199) and break the AT&T contract and send the iPhone to India. Here is the catch:
* iPhone 3G with 2 yr contract - $199 ($299 for 16GB)
+ $36 - Activation
+ $175 - Early Termination Fee
+ $70 - One month of service
* So… 8GB iPhone Canceled: $480
16GB iPhone Canceled: $580
This excludes sales tax on iPhone. So add another $20-$35 more.
Therefore you end up pay ~$520 for 8GIG iPhone 3G which comes to Rs.22,360.
4. There is still a different of around Rs.9,000 between contract free iPhone 3G from US and Rs. 31,000 which is the cost of official iPhone 3G in India. Lets now get down to amazing benefits you would be entitled to if you purchase iPhone 3G from Airtel in India. I am not sure about Vodafone features in India, since I am using Airtel services on my iPhone 3G.
* Airtel is offering Free EDGE data of 500MB every month for 12 months if one purchase iPhone 3G. This is awesome. I am not sure too sure if this offer will last long. This virtually means that you will be saving Rs.500($12) every month for one year. And I have been using this service on my iPhone 3G, I must say that the speed is pretty good. I can download all my mails and have kept “Fetch Mail Automatically” on. I have been using GPS on Maps, while I am commuting, its just amazing the way GPS continuously keeps showing my actual location in Maps. Google Maps is amazing, I can see the GPS BLUE DOT moving on those roads and streets of Bangalore without any hitch. This is my most favourite app. Since GPS wasn’t there in the 1st gen iPhone, I was bowled over when saw GPS functioning in Bangalore streets and roads.
And the best thing is I can surf the web, use GPS Maps and check emails on my iPhone 3G without pay a penny more to Airtel, cos I have 500MB free for 1 long year.
* The next big thing I love about Airtel’s iPhone 3G is access to “AppStore” in India. I have activated my account on iTunes by authorizing my credit card so that I get automatically charged by Apple when I download PAID APPS.
I have been using APPSTORE from past 3 days and let me tell you, this app is going to be the next iTunes for songs. iTunes for songs revolutionized the complete music industry in the US. AppStore is going to revolutionize the way applications and softwares are bought and sold in the whole world in coming years. There is no issue with piracy at all and one can buy free apps as well. This is marvelous.
o Here is my list of PAID APPS that I have downloaded:
1. VisuaRadio - Amazing amazing internet radio streaming over 4000 radio stations. I bought it for $0.99.
awesome.
2. Super Monkey Ball - This is the most popular iPhone game available on AppStore. This game is offered by SEGA, the popular gaming company. My son is already hooked on to this game, and spends quite sometime. I too spend most of my free time playing this game. Bought it for $9.99. A must have for all gaming freaks.
o I have downloaded quite a few FREE APPS in last 3 days:
1. reQall - Voice Notes recorder app with ToDo voice recording support.
2. Scribble - Scribbling pad.
3. midomi - Voice recognizing music search app. Just sing or take iPhone close to a music player, and it will automatically pick up every bit of information about that song. Like the music album name, artists, youtube related videos etc. It works with hindi songs as well. I tried it with “Pappu can’t dance sala” and this amazing app picked up Jaane Tu.. artists, sings, music composer and youtube videos related to Jaane Tu.. as well. AMAZING…
4. Along with these, I have been using Twitterific, Tris(Tetris on iPhone), Few racing games like, Audi A4, CannonGame, Solitaire, Palringo(iPhone Chat app), and Wordpress for iPhone.
I am sure the difference of Rs.9,000 can be surely justified with these awesome AppStore support and 500MB free data download for 12months from Airtel. BTW - if you think you can anyways buy iPhone 3G from the US and access AppStore and download apps using Airtel SIM, think again, Engadget has covered Airtel’s claim that no hacker in the world can crack “OPERATOR-SPECIFIC IPHONE APPLICATIONS” which Airtel has jointly built with Apple. For more on this, read this article - Airtel claims no hacker in the world can crack iPhone 3G.
I hope this post helps you in your decision making process.
Before I put it all up, I would like to reiterate that I’m not new to this iPhone world. I had bought the 1st gen iPhone way back in Nov 2007 and have been using the unlocked version right from then. I sold it in June 2008 for Rs.16,000 ($400) expecting that iPhone 3G might be priced less than $200 and I thought, I would then buy it in the US and bring it back to India. Then I bought another one from eBay on 11th July when I realized that iPhone 3G is subsidized only to AT&T customers and its officially going to come to India very soon. And just 3 days back I bought iPhone 3G locked to Airtel India and was amongst the first buy iPhone 3G in Bangalore, India
, read more. I have been using this awesome awesome 3G version from past 3 days now and I am totally convinced that this iPhone 3G should be bought in India and through Airtel/Vodafone only. And why 31k is justified fully. Let me begin:1. iPhone 3G costs Rs.31,000 ($720) in India. The price is almost the same in any other country where iPhone has been released and is not subsidized by a local Service Provider.
2. iPhone 3G is the cheapest in the US @ Rs.8,500 ($199). This is because of one big reason. AT&T has the exclusive right to sell iPhone 3G in the US and one has to commit for a 2 year contract before purchasing iPhone in the US. Now what does this mean, let me explain:
* On an average mobile phone users have to commit for 1 to 2 year contract with a service provider to get mobile instruments at a subsidized rate. This helps the service provider and the instrument maker to recover the cost in splits over a longer time duration.
* On an average, a mobile user will have to pay $40-$60 per month for 2 years minimum, if he buys iPhone 3G from AT&T. Here is the rate plan on AT&T website, read AT&T plans (type 33311 as zip code if asked).
So if we take an average of $40 per month which Rs.1720, it comes to Rs.20640 per year. Here you are paying around Rs.8,500($199) + Rs.20,640($480) = Rs.29,197($679) at the end of first year. And this is not the end of it, you will have to keep paying till you want to use iPhone 3G.
3. You must be thinking, why should I commit to pay AT&T for 2 years. I can very well ask my cousin/friend living in the US to buy iPhone @ Rs.8,500($199) and break the AT&T contract and send the iPhone to India. Here is the catch:
* iPhone 3G with 2 yr contract - $199 ($299 for 16GB)
+ $36 - Activation
+ $175 - Early Termination Fee
+ $70 - One month of service
* So… 8GB iPhone Canceled: $480
16GB iPhone Canceled: $580
This excludes sales tax on iPhone. So add another $20-$35 more.
Therefore you end up pay ~$520 for 8GIG iPhone 3G which comes to Rs.22,360.
4. There is still a different of around Rs.9,000 between contract free iPhone 3G from US and Rs. 31,000 which is the cost of official iPhone 3G in India. Lets now get down to amazing benefits you would be entitled to if you purchase iPhone 3G from Airtel in India. I am not sure about Vodafone features in India, since I am using Airtel services on my iPhone 3G.
* Airtel is offering Free EDGE data of 500MB every month for 12 months if one purchase iPhone 3G. This is awesome. I am not sure too sure if this offer will last long. This virtually means that you will be saving Rs.500($12) every month for one year. And I have been using this service on my iPhone 3G, I must say that the speed is pretty good. I can download all my mails and have kept “Fetch Mail Automatically” on. I have been using GPS on Maps, while I am commuting, its just amazing the way GPS continuously keeps showing my actual location in Maps. Google Maps is amazing, I can see the GPS BLUE DOT moving on those roads and streets of Bangalore without any hitch. This is my most favourite app. Since GPS wasn’t there in the 1st gen iPhone, I was bowled over when saw GPS functioning in Bangalore streets and roads.
And the best thing is I can surf the web, use GPS Maps and check emails on my iPhone 3G without pay a penny more to Airtel, cos I have 500MB free for 1 long year.
* The next big thing I love about Airtel’s iPhone 3G is access to “AppStore” in India. I have activated my account on iTunes by authorizing my credit card so that I get automatically charged by Apple when I download PAID APPS.
I have been using APPSTORE from past 3 days and let me tell you, this app is going to be the next iTunes for songs. iTunes for songs revolutionized the complete music industry in the US. AppStore is going to revolutionize the way applications and softwares are bought and sold in the whole world in coming years. There is no issue with piracy at all and one can buy free apps as well. This is marvelous.
o Here is my list of PAID APPS that I have downloaded:
1. VisuaRadio - Amazing amazing internet radio streaming over 4000 radio stations. I bought it for $0.99.
awesome.2. Super Monkey Ball - This is the most popular iPhone game available on AppStore. This game is offered by SEGA, the popular gaming company. My son is already hooked on to this game, and spends quite sometime. I too spend most of my free time playing this game. Bought it for $9.99. A must have for all gaming freaks.
o I have downloaded quite a few FREE APPS in last 3 days:
1. reQall - Voice Notes recorder app with ToDo voice recording support.
2. Scribble - Scribbling pad.
3. midomi - Voice recognizing music search app. Just sing or take iPhone close to a music player, and it will automatically pick up every bit of information about that song. Like the music album name, artists, youtube related videos etc. It works with hindi songs as well. I tried it with “Pappu can’t dance sala” and this amazing app picked up Jaane Tu.. artists, sings, music composer and youtube videos related to Jaane Tu.. as well. AMAZING…
4. Along with these, I have been using Twitterific, Tris(Tetris on iPhone), Few racing games like, Audi A4, CannonGame, Solitaire, Palringo(iPhone Chat app), and Wordpress for iPhone.
I am sure the difference of Rs.9,000 can be surely justified with these awesome AppStore support and 500MB free data download for 12months from Airtel. BTW - if you think you can anyways buy iPhone 3G from the US and access AppStore and download apps using Airtel SIM, think again, Engadget has covered Airtel’s claim that no hacker in the world can crack “OPERATOR-SPECIFIC IPHONE APPLICATIONS” which Airtel has jointly built with Apple. For more on this, read this article - Airtel claims no hacker in the world can crack iPhone 3G.
I hope this post helps you in your decision making process.
