Apple India to launch iPhone 6S, 6S Plus in India.

Apple has announced that it will launch the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in India on October 16. This will be the fastest iPhone roll out ever for the Indian market, coming less than a month after the latest models became available globally.

This launch puts the new iPhones in position to cash in on the upcoming festive season. The biggest competitors to the new iPhones in the Indian market will be Samsung's Galaxy Note5 and S6 edge+.

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are available in gold, silver, space gray and the new rose gold metallic finishes. 

Apple-designed accessories including leather and silicone cases in a range of colors and Lightning Docks in color-matched metallic finishes are also available.

This is the fastest iPhone roll out for India, with the new models hitting the country less than a month after global launch. 

Apple has sold 13 million units of iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, breaking last year's sales record of 10 million units. 

As per industry sources, iPhone 6s would sell at an average selling price between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000. The iPhone 6s Plus would selling at an average price between Rs 80,000 and Rs 90,000. The Rose Gold edition of the device seems to come at an added premium of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C prices for India confirmed by Apple

Apple iPhone 5S and 5C will be available in India from November 1. The iPhone 5S will be priced at Rs 53,500 for 16 GB, Rs 62,500 for 32 GB and Rs 71,500 for Rs 64 GB. It will be available in gold, space grey and black colours.

 

The iPhone 5C, which is available in yellow, green, pink, white and blue, will start at Rs 41,900 for 16 GB, while its 32 GB variant is priced at Rs 53,500. All prices are inclusive of all taxes.

 

Cases for iPhone 5S will cost Rs 3,200, while those for 5C will cost Rs 2,300. iPhone 4S 8GB will be available for Rs 31,500. Apple has discontinued iPhone 4 and iPhone 5.

 

Leading telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have already announced that they will start selling iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C smartphones from November 1 in India.

 

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 had said in a statement.

 

 

Reliance Communications said it will offer both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C "to customers beginning on November 1, 2013."

 

A contract-free and unlocked 16GB version of the iPhone 5C is available for USD 549 (about Rs 34,700) in the US, while an unlocked and contract-free iPhone 5S can be bought for USD 649 (about Rs 41,000).

 

iPhone 5C will be a choice for consumers evaluating Apple Inc's 16 GB model of iPhone 5 while iPhone 5S can be an option for customers looking for an alternate option to 64 GB model of iPhone 5.

 

Apple last week announced that iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C would be available in more than a dozen countries on November 1, including India, without revealing their prices.

 

Apple has timed the release of latest iPhones in India before Diwali, which is on November 3. Apple Inc products have previously hit the Indian markets in the last fortnight of November or the first fortnight of December.

 

iPhone 5S and 5C will be available on Friday, October 25 in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Island, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.

 

iPhone 5S and 5C will also be available on Friday, November 1 in Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE.

Tesco Mobile to fight rivals on price with iPhone launch

Supermarket giant wants to sell iconic handset in its stores before Christmas

Tesco is turning the screw on rival mobile phone shops by offering the Apple iPhone in its stores and online over the coming weeks. The supermarket's telecoms division, Tesco Mobile, said yesterday that it would introduce the iPhone 3G and the latest 3GS model in the UK before Christmas as part of its joint venture with the network provider 02.

Tesco is the fourth company to sign a deal to sell iPhones in Britain following 02 and Orange, which already sell the iconic handset. Vodafone has plans to offer the device from the new year but has yet to agree a date.

A spokeswoman for Tesco Mobile said: "It is a coup for us. Our absolute aim is to get this into stores and online before Christmas."

Although a launch date has not been confirmed, Tesco Mobile's iPhones will be offered on contract and pay-as-you-go deals. The spokeswoman hinted at a robust pricing policy, saying: "We want to bring a bit of Tesco value to the iPhone on tariffs. It will be slightly different and is not going to replicate what is already out there."

Tesco Mobile's move is a blow to Orange and Vodafone's iPhone sales prospects in the UK, given that 42 million visits to Tesco stores are made each week, including multiple trips by individuals. The grocer also confirmed that customers buying and iPhone and tariffs at Tesco will be able to receive Clubcard loyalty points.

"Obviously, with all our tariffs, handsets and top-ups on Tesco Mobile customers get Clubcard points and the iPhone will be no different," the company said. Tesco has 16 million Clubcard holders in the UK.

The Tesco move mirrors a much earlier announcement by Wal-Mart to sell the iPhone in the US. Carolina Milanesi, a research director at Gartner, said: "This opens the iPhone up to a different clientele so it makes sense for Apple and O2. You are probably going to see something more aggressive on the tariff side rather than on the hardware side. It will probably put a little bit more pressure on the competition but it will depend on what margins you want to make." While sources played down speculation that Tesco's iPhone deal might have been influenced by an over-supply of the phones, Ms Milanesi said: "There is some inventory in the UK market no doubt, but you are not talking about millions."

Tesco Mobile is a separate, joint venture from the supermarket and falls under Tesco's retailing services division. Yesterday, it said that profit from the telecoms business grew over the 26 weeks to 29 August. The number of Tesco Mobile customers rose by 10 per cent to 1.9 million in a declining pre-pay market. A spokesman said: "We've made good progress rolling out our phone shops, with 59 now open and 100 planned by year-end. The phone shops are transforming our ability to sell products that require an assisted sale, particularly contract mobile phones."

Last week, Tesco fleshed out the strategy for its retailing services business, notably a major expansion of its telecoms operations. The grocer will offer bundled broadband and home phone packages for the first time, as part of a five-year deal with Cable & Wireless. Lance Batchelor, chief executive of Tesco Telecoms, said it would double its number of in-store phone shops to 200 by the end of 2010. Its retailing services division includes Tesco Bank, which will offer current accounts by the end of next year.

No bets on iPhone for now

IT is just as well that Apple’s 3G iPhone will release in India only in September (or later) though it released in 22 other countries on July 11. By then, Indian consumers — smart and demanding as we are about mobile products and services — would have gotten reports whether the wait is worth it or not.
However, before we even evaluate that, a few gripes. First up, what’s the big deal about the iPhone’s 3G variant in India, since no Indian service provider has a3G network in any case (the government is just about waking up to 3G and talking of auctioning licences)?
At present, the fastest wireless network we have is Edge, on which most smartphones —including the BlackBerry —work. Second, GPS navigation. Online mapping in India is still at a primitive stage, compared to mapping networks in the US or Europe, or even Australia. I am willing to lay a wager on this, but at most times you will not get even the names on the map to synchronise with the names that someone told you about. The problem with mapping in India is not the technology, but the nomenclature of roads, something that keeps changing with changing governments and revolving ideologies.
But what my friends from the US told me next bamboozled me more than a Class 4 Science question from Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? might flummox a bank clerk from Kakinada — the Apple iPhone does not have a video recorder. Hell and damnation, how does any high-end phone in India not have a camera that records video?
Just as the physicist Stephen Hawking once said that the inclusion of even one mathematical formula will halve the sales of his groundbreaking book. A Brief History of Time, it is possible that the lack of a video recorder could affect the sales of the iPhone. Most mid-end to high-end phones available in India come with standard video recording software and storage systems, and this is a challenge that Apple will have to face once it’s legally sold here (unlocked iPhones are everywhere, though). And yes, there is no way you can receive live TV, which you can on certain high-end Nokia models.
What I am terribly excited about, though, is Apple’s Apps Store, a collection of 500 (and counting) software applications for the iPhone that can be either downloaded free, or for a charge of up to $10. For instance, the eBay auction machine is free, and so is TypePad, the blogging platform. A few games are also free to download. If both Airtel and Vodafone — the two networks that have promised to bring the iPhone to India — deliver on the Apps Store promise, then we could have a good thing going, primarily because the iPhone could then be a serious contender for the much-talked about convergent device.
My biggest concern is pricing. There are just too many price bands (right from Rs 10,000 to Rs 27,000) being thrown around buzz town, and that is not a good sign. Both Airtel and Vodafone must come clean on the phone’s pricing or face a clientele that is not sure what value to put on a premium product such as the iPhone. So while we wait, we wait with a certain amount of scepticism.