• Are 2 Carriers Getting iPhone to India?

    Are 2 Carriers Getting iPhone to India?

    Techtree News Staff, May 12, 2008 1227 hrs IST

    Airtel has issued a statement saying it will bring the Apple iPhone to India. Last week, Vodafone claimed it would bring the iPhone to India.

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Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) said in a statement today that it will bring Apple's iPhone to India, Singapore, Australia, and the Philippines this year. Meanwhile, Airtel issued a separate statement saying it will bring the iPhone to India. As it is, SingTel has a stake in Bharti Airtel so the iPhone via SingTel would be made available on the Airtel network in India.

What is curious though is that just last week, Vodafone said it is bringing the iPhone to India later this year, along with nine other countries including the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey. In fact even Telecom Italia announced its deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy in the second half of the year, which means the iPhone in Italy too will not remain exclusive to Vodafone's network.

If Vodafone and Airtel are both right, does that mean the Apple iPhone will be brought to India by two carriers? We at Techtree feel this could be the next step in Apple's strategy to do away with their exclusivity clause -- after Italy. Which would bring down prices of the iPhone considerably -- with both telcos vying for a larger share of the Apple pie in India. And for customers, it may well mean good times lie ahead...

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Discussion Board
(6) Comments
suresh prasad
,bihar, on May 13, 2008 08:25 PM
uajjana postoffice suohilpatti disst shewan (bihar)
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omair
,bangalore, on May 13, 2008 05:02 PM
I Really Dont Get Apple Letting iPhone Run On Only 1 Carrier In Their Home Country While Allowing It To Run On More Than 1 Nation In Other Countries.. Also "with both telcos vying for a larger share of the Apple pie in India" Is Really Smart Of The Editor (whoever you are).!
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riyansh mundra
,mumbai, on May 13, 2008 01:50 PM
India has more population than any other country except China, so to cover wide customer range apple need more than one carrier. and in India telecom operators don't provide contract basis services for eg. buy iphone with 2 years lock in period. thats why Indian market is different from other countries. the issue is price? i guess its going to be costlier to buy iphone from its carriers because its going to be taxed. roughly its going to be costlier by rs.3000 from grey market.
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Saurabh
,Chennai, on May 12, 2008 02:54 PM
Telecom market in India and other specified countries is very different from that of USA, so makes sense for Apple to offer iPhone through various carriers, no wonder if this is true.
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kaitoo
,bangalore, on May 13, 2008 10:09 AM
what do they mean by bringing it to india.The iphone market in india has been active from 2007 June.Bringing something that already exists,roping in a few bollywood clowns to sell them..billing apple huge amounts.typical typical emerging economy syndrome.Learn from vietnam learn from vietnam
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Gaz Iggi
,Sydney, on May 12, 2008 05:29 PM
The same thing is happening in Australia where Vodafone and our SingTel affiliate Optus have announced that they will be releasing the iPhone. In fact it's rumoured that the next iPhone release will be a 3G iPhone.
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