It
has been confirmed that Apple’s iPhone 5c and 5S are coming to India on
1 November, and that the devices will be sold by Airtel and RCom. The
iPhone 5s will cost Rs 54,000 while the ‘cheaper’ iPhone 5c will cost Rs
42,000. Airtel has started pre-bookings for the latest iPhones, which
saw record sales in the first three days of launch in the US market.
“Interested customers can visit select Airtel Retail Store for
pre-registration,” Airtel said in a statement on Monday. AP The iPhone
5c and 5s series, which was launched by Apple in September, has proved
to be a massive hit in international markets, with 9 million iPhone 5s
and 5c phones being sold in just three days. Subsequently the 5s, which
is the more expensive model, turned out to be a better seller than the
cheaper and more colourful iPhone 5c. (Although the latter does come in
gold) The 1 November launch was known well ahead of time, and this
marked the first time that Apple had actually announced a launch date
for India. In fact, all indications are that the tech giant is starting
to look at the Indian market a little more seriously than it has in the
past. A report on Economic Times for instance, said Apple India’s senior
executives recently met CEOs and senior executives from top electronic
retail chains in India and “spelt out plans to enter the top 50 tier II
and III markets in India by selling its phones, tablets and portable
music players at their outlets in an exclusive corner or a
shop-in-shop.” Apple’s distribution strategy in India has undergone a
drastic change since it tied up with Reddington and Ingram Micro this
year. As we have noted in a previous article, Apple’s new tie up ensured
that the iPhone is now available in a store nearby, and not just with
big retailers like Croma and Reliance (which is Apple’s official
re-seller in India). In fact, it’s not hard to find smaller shops in
Delhi, Mumbai stocking Apple products such as iPods, iPhones, iPads and
even official Apple accessories. As far as India’s smartphone market is
concerned, while it is one of the world’s fastest growing ones, it is
also extremely price sensitive. The testimony to this is that low-budget
smartphones makers Micromax, Karbonn are number two and three (Behind
Samsung) on the list of top smartphone vendors in India. However as the
pricing for Apple’s two latest devices in India shows, this does not
mean that the company is willing to give up its ‘premium’ tag in India
just yet, and is instead hoping to entice consumers to pay more for a
premium product. The iPhone 5s has a 4-inch Retina Display. It is
powered by A7 chipset – based on 64-bit PC architecture. There’s
co-processor called M7 for motion sensing activities. The phone has an
8-mega pixel camera, dual LED flashlight, and a rear back camera that
can record 720p HD movie in 120fps. The iPhone 5c has a plastic shell
and has a bigger battery as compared to that of the iPhone 5. The iPhone
5c has a 4-inch Retina display, and is powered by Apple A6x chipset
(dual core). There’s an 8MP rear facing camera along with a FaceTime HD
camera. Both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c support 4G LTE (TD-LTE).
