iPhone finally hits India, should you buy?
Three months after Apple announced that the iPhone 3G would be available in India, the day finally dawned when an eager Indian junta managed to get their hands on a legit iPhone, with a 14 year old school boy among the first buyers.
The iPhone is being marketed in India by two operators, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel. While it costs $199 (~Rs.8500) in the US and just under Rs.10,000 in Singapore where it was also launched, it costs a whopping Rs.31,000 for the 8GB version and Rs.36,100 for the 16GB one in India. This is largely due to the low Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in India as compared to the US, which allows AT&T to subsidise the cost of the phone over there.
In a bid to garner a larger chunk of this pie, Vodafone announced an option allowing buyers to procure the iPhone via finance schemes. They have tied up with Axis Bank and Barclays to offer the phone on 6 or 12 equated monthly installments (EMIs). ICICI Bank could also be a part of this. The only hitch is that customers have to use a credit card issued by one of these banks to avail of this scheme.
Is it for you? Here’s a quick comparison with two rivals, the Nokia N96 and Samsung Omnia.
Storage
The iPhone comes in two flavours, 8GB and 16GB, with no expandable memory. A Nokia N96 offers 16GB of internal memory, expandable upto 24 GB. The Samsung Omnia is similar to the iPhone, offering an 8GB and 16 GB version, but unlike the iPhone, it has a microSD slot allowing users to expand memory.
Service Provider
The iPhone is locked to the service provider, presently either Airtel or Vodafone, which means you cannot switch the operator, though there are hacks to get around this. On the other hand, you can use the N96 or Omnia with any operator in India. This could be an issue soon, especially with number portability on the anvil, which would allow users to change operators while retaining the same number.
Camera
The iPhone comes with a 2 MP camera, which although good, does not compare to the Nokia N96 which features a 5 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and video light. The Omnia also comes with a 5 MP camera, and supports auto focus, image stabliser, auto-panorama shot, wide dynamic range and face detection options.
Video
The iPhone does not allow video recording at all, whereas the N96 supports this at 30 fps. The Omnia too supports video recording, video editing and audio and live dubbing.
Bluetooth
The iPhone uses Bluetooth only for hands-free calling. The N96 and Omnia allow this as well as data transfer using Bluetooth.
Messaging
A real howler, this one… The iPhone does not allow forwarding of messages or sending messages to multiple contacts at once !! This is easily among the most common features supported even by low-end handsets. The iPhone also does not support MMS.
Battery
Another big problem area. You cannot change an iPhone battery on your own, and will need to take the phone to an Apple store for this. You may / may also not get your phone back immediately and could end up keeping it there for a day or two. Apple said this was done to reduce the weight of the phone, but considering that nowadays, it is unthinkable for people to be without their phones for more than a few minutes, I don’t think they will be too happy with this. The N96 and Omnia both support a removable battery.
So what have you decided to do? Buy the iPhone or let it pass? Personally, I’d prefer a good smartphone from Nokia, Ericsson, ASUS, HTC et al, and use that along with my iPod. Even though that’s two gadgets, I’d rather keep my requirements separate.
How about you?
Update: It seems video recording on the iPhone is possible. If you have a jailbroken iPhone running 2.0 software, head over here to find two such tools, Cycorder and Video Recorder for iPhone.
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