Vodafone To Launch iPhone 3G In India On Friday, For A Whopping $715 And $830; Not 3G, But GPRS

So much for the iPhone reaching any scale in India. Vodafone ( NYSE: VOD), through its Vodafone Essar joint venture, is gearing up to launch the iPhone 3G in India beginning August 22, but the device will cost almost $715 for the 8GBt model, PC World reports. The 16GB model will sell for $830. Those price points are even higher than what the first iPhone sold for in the U.S. and one that most Indians can't afford. Even considering an IT professional's average annual salary of $12,000 to $24,000 in India, it's hard to imagine the device selling well among that segment. Vodafone put up a website to detail its iPhone 3G pricing and availability. The details on Voda's website: "The iPhone 3G is available in 8GB and 16GB at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively. And as you have already pre-registered with us, you can get it before others do. All you need to do is drop in at a select Vodafone Store between August 20 and 21 and confirm your booking by paying Rs 10000 through cash or credit card. Don't forget to show the iPhone booking SMS, which you would have received from us, when you visit the Vodafone Store to make the deposit." Guess this mean people may still flock to the gray-market versions, which are cheaper in this case, possibly as much as Rs 4K-Rs 5K, according to this BS story.

Bharti Airtel has also said it plans to begin selling the device on the same day, but hasn't disclosed pricing.

Turns out of course even though it is called iPhone 3G, and that's what the site lists it as, it is actually only GPRS, which is enhanced 2G. On this Voda page, it says in fine print: "Currently compatible only with 2G networks. Only select features and services are currently available in India." Remember, India still has no 3G networks to speak of. The Indian government plans to auction off spectrum for the higher-speed networks later this year with commercial deployments expected in the first half of 2009...even that has been delayed due to political issues.

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