The second coming of iPhone – iPhone 3G S. Will it stick?

I hope it does. But, it has all the ingredients of a blockbuster failure. There were multitude of reasons why iPhone has failed in its first coming to India. Looks like nothing has been learnt from it. It chose the same service providers -Vodafone and Airtel. It is trying to sell a product (3G) where the service itself is not available. And most importantly at an exorbitant price.

If the news (read rumors for now) is to be believed Apple might not cut its price for the iPhone 3G S. That to me is the biggest dampener. It happened for its first release and might happen for its next release. The only thing which is missing from the first version is the hype.

How could that be? Where did the hype go? For a change it went to Nokia N97. Have you looked at the campaign N97 is running online and offline? It is just incredible. A lot of money has been spent already. iPhone might have to do something similar. But, I know I am getting redundant here but the cost is too much. Both the phones are over 30000 rupees.

There is appetite for smart phones in India. Just that India is looking for the perfect phone that fits the bill. And right now, nothing fits the bill. Coming to iPhone 3G S, it is faster (256 MB RAM and 600 MHz processor), its battery runs longer, takes better pictures and way better than its predecessor.

Here is what I propose.

Launch all the 3G phones after the 3G spectrum is allocated for telcos (other than BSNL and MTNL). It is really no use to own a phone which does something but I don’t know what that thing until something else happens. And that something else might not happen. So I am paying at least a 10000 rupees for that.

Sure, it will happen sometime soon. But, I will buy it then.

So all you 3G phone makers can write a open letter to Mr. Raja. Here is the content.

Reg : 3G Spectrum

There are 3 industries waiting for it. Phone makers, service providers and VAS providers. Just release it. We can all mint money.

PS : That was the easiest letter I have written. And it is released under Creative Commons license. Only twist is you can use it without giving the credit to me.

PPS : How about Apple ties up with BSNL and see if it clicks. BSNL’s 3G launch did not receive much response and neither did iPhone’s 3G. May be if they tie up they might see some change in fortunes.

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Author: Sriram Vadlamani

Sriram Vadlamni is a IT professional and an avid blogger. He blogs about India business at Indianomics.com and you can follow him on twitter @indianomics (Email: sriram.vadlamani@gmail.com)

The second coming of iPhone – iPhone 3G S. Will it stick?

Tagged as: iphone 3g s india, iphone 3g s india launch, iphone 3g s india price

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Vamsee June 14, 2009 at 6:22 am

Only, it’s not so simple as sending a letter, is it? The problem with 3G licence auctioning in India is not that the politicians don’t know how important it is, but rather they know too well that it’s going to be a gold mine. And they all want a piece of it.

But yeah, if I’m not wrong, Mr. Raja definitely has his priorities right – he promised the auction will be held within 2 months of approval of his current plan, and 3G will be launched before the end of this year on all the big providers.

But look at it this way – the last gen iPhone 3G is still pretty cool, and as desirable as ever. Now, there is a very strong chance that the 8GB version might be available for 25k (the off-plan retail prices of 8GB iPhone in US seem to suggest this). That might not do wonders for iPhone’s market share, but it does compare quite favorably with Nokia E75 at least. We can only wait and see how it all actually turns out :)

2 Sriram Vadlamani June 14, 2009 at 11:08 am: That’s where the minting money part comes in. In that equation the missing element is the politicians.
25K is still a lot of money for a phone. I am inclining towards Nokai E75.

3 sainjiv June 14, 2009 at 2:31 pm