Ok, iPhone 4 is not exactly free, but close to it… Lets find out how!
iPhone 4 is coming to India when consumers worldwide are getting ready for iPhone 5. Although, for iPad 2, India has been given better treatment, when it comes to iPhones, India still looks like a dumping ground.
When iPhone 3G came to India last year, Apple had tied up with Vodafone and Airtel, but this time Aircel seems to have been the preferred telecom operator along with Airtel, who will be launching iPhone 4 in India.
Also, unlike last year, both Airtel and Aircel are giving lot of freebies on iPhone 4 purchase to attract customers – I am sure they don’t want to repeat the same thing that happened last year – Earlier iPhone launch was a super flop in India.
While, Airtel is offering 50% discount on iPhone 4, if user’s bill is above Rs. 2000 monthly – Aircel has gone ahead and is offering even better plan. It plans to offer discount equivalent to price of iPhone over a 24 month period !
How much does iPhone 4 cost ?
While Airtel is offering iPhone 4 for Rs. 35k (for 16gb) and 41k (for 32gb), Aircel has announced slightly lower prices – Rs. 34.5k (for 16gb) and 40.9k (for 32gb).
Aircel offerings on iPhone 4 purchase
If you are a pre-paid customer – sorry, you have no discounts, just take the iPhone at face value and forget about it, but if you are a post paid customer, and are a heavy mobile user (i.e: if you mobile bill is in the range of 2-3k), you stand to save a lot of money on iPhone 4. Here are the details:
Aircel Plans for iPhone 4
So, if you opt for premium plans, you end up saving 100% of your iPhone 4 costs. At the end of 2 years a consumer will essentially pay about Rs. 51,336 for 16GB iPhone 4 + voice calls + data and similarly and Rs. 60,240 for 32 GB iPhone 4 ++. If you have any questions on this Aircel scheme, head over to FAQs section and you should find your answers there…
We will have to obviously wait and see how many consumers will lap this up, but according to me the prices are just too high even with all the discounts and freebies offered ! This will be another flop is what I can say ?
What is your opinion? will iPhone 4 fly off the shelf’s in India with that kind of pricing?