“Bharti Airtel Ltd , India’s top mobile phone carrier, and its smaller rival Aircel separately said on Monday they would launch Apple’s iPhone 4 in India in the coming months,” Bharghavi Nagaraju and Devidutta Tripathy report for Reuters.
Nagaraju and Tripathy report, “With nearly 800 million mobile subscribers, India is the world’s second-biggest market for mobile phone services and is also the fastest-growing. But smartphones are estimated to account for just over 5 percent of the mobile handset sales. Indian carriers have recently started rolling out high-speed third-generation (3G) mobile networks, which is expected to boost sales of smartphones. Bharti had 159 million mobile subscribers as of end-February, while Aircel had 53.5 million.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
1.2 billion Indians rejoice!!! The best of the best from uncle Sam is finally yours to hold without some dodgy middleman!! Next a temple to Apple (Apple Store) will open!! This is soooo exciting!!
Oh my goodness gracious!
I could just hear that in Apu’s voice in my mind. 😮 )
Aren’t they a bit late introducing the iPhone 4 in India on the cusp of the introduction of the iPhone 5? I suppose after the introduction of the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4 could be had for $49 on contract so that’ll make sense in terms of penetration in the Indian market. If Apple brings the price of the iPhone 4 down to $49 in India the demand will be huge, bigger than the Indian burrito.
exactly why this is another of those bring down the share price news stories. WS just loves India. The story is malicious since WS knows any inkling of an iPhone 5 delay means a cover for their manipulating the stock to the downside.
“Aren’t they a bit late introducing the iPhone 4 in India?”
Not really. They are just now getting some decent 3G networks in India. Besides, Apple is just now getting surplus iPhone 5s. The planets are just now aligning.
A recently overhead exchange….
Q:”What Would Hindu?”
A:”Buy an iPhone.”
Q:”Not an Android?”
A:”Is lame.”
Q:”Want a Win7?”
A:”Boo dis….”
@Ballmer’s left nut – they don’t subsidize phones in India. Full price and not unlocked — raw deal.
As usal very late
Most of the subscribers in India are on Pre paid month to month plan. The iPhone in full price will be exensive to purchase unless Airtel subsidizes with contract. The sweet spot for Indian market would be 250$, the contract free mini-iPhone around 250$ would be perfect for India and China.
Expensive* to purchase