“Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. is offering iPhone contracts for the first time in India as it counts on data users to help revive earnings that shrank about 89 percent in four years,” Bhuma Shrivastava and Kartikay Mehrotra report for Bloomberg News.
“The country’s third-biggest operator by market value aims to extend the plan to include models other than Apple Inc.’s, seeking customers who surf the Internet, download music and videos and help boost revenue from data services, Chief Executive Officer Gurdeep Singh said in a telephone interview,” Shrivastava and Mehrotra report. “The company started giving out the iPhone 5C model last week on a two-year contract for a monthly payment of as little as 2,599 rupees ($42), he said.”
Shrivastava and Mehrotra report, “The wireless carrier is betting on smartphones to help increase income in a country where the average monthly revenue per user is $1.60, compared with about $69 in the U.S. The arrangement also helps Apple — whose $550 iPhone 5C is unaffordable to most Indians — make inroads in the world’s fastest growing smartphone market… ‘The tie-up with Apple will provide positive traction for Reliance Communications,’ said Abhinav Ganeshan, a Mumbai-based analyst with Canara Bank Securities. ‘It has never been easier for India to buy an iPhone and now this U.S. model will really get young spenders to buy into Reliance’s offer.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Kind of funny that they think users of phones other than Apple’s iPhone will be spending money on data. India, meet the Android users.
Sounds like a good dumping ground for all those older traded-in iPhones. Get them hooked and locked in with iPhone, and the rest will take care of itself. From what I’ve read, the problem with contract plans in countries like India and China are customers not paying on their two year contracts. They get their phone, jailbreak it, and download paid apps for free. There is very little companies can do to collect on people not abiding on their contracts. If this weren’t the case, Apple would be doing much better in these markets. Until this can be enforced, Apple is limited on their ability to penetrate with any significant market share. A two year contract is what makes an iPhone affordable for a lot of people. Works great in America, but not in low wage, impoverished countries.
I hope apple is not wasting resources trying to get market share in piss poor and unhygienic India, let the cheap skate Indians marvel at Samsung phones.
Wayne, is that you? Or are you Jimmy Choo? Please go back to complaining about how redneck the Midwest is, or how Samsung is a bunch of Jews, or whatever garbage you are spouting out at the moment. People like you really dilute the MDN experience.
Listening to you trying to be the politics police is tiresome at best. Why don’t you go to another site?
Hey doggy! U know india was once upon a time the richest country in the world. Being a dog, u should know that every dog has its day. Check ur facts. Don’t under estimate any country. Apple must have done its market research otherwise it wouldn’t be selling in india and well at that. I am seeing more iPhones and iPads in india than ever before.