India, Czech, Estonia, Poland also set for Aug 22 iPhone launch

[AppleInsider]

Wireless carriers in India, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Poland have joined those in Romania, the Philippines, and Hungary by announcing local availability of Apple's iPhone starting on August 22nd.

India

In India, both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone said customers can begin pre-registering for their respective iPhone 3G launches on August 22nd, but neither has provided any pricing details.

Bharti Airtel has about 69 million subscribers, while Vodafone Essar has about 49 million.

Czech Republic

Over in the Czech Republic, O2 said it has gained exclusive rights to market iPhone given that it's the only regional 3G network operator.

For individual customers, iPhone 3Gs will be available at all O2 brand stores from August 22. O2 business customers will be offered iPhone service via O2's business partners, the carrier said.

Customers who are interested in the iPhone 3G can register their interest and will receive pricing and other details at a later date.

Estonia

Meanwhile, TeliaSonera and EMT also announced plans to bring iPhone 3G to Estonia on August 22.

"The launch of iPhone 3G represents another strategic step for us in the development of the mobile broadband market and strengthens our position in the Nordic and Baltic region," said Kenneth Karlberg, president, Business Area Mobility Service, TeliaSonera.

Poland

Finally, both Orange and Era said they too will begin offering their subscribers the iPhone 3G on Aug 22nd.

India, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Romania, the Philippines, and Hungary are the first seven of twenty international stops announced as part of Apple's second phase iPhone 3G rollout.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[shanmugam]

in india
----------
most of them are prepaid customers (aka GoPhone customers) if the price is rite it will be hit even then it will priced like (i guess) Rs 20,000 for 8Gb and Rs 25,000 for 16Gb which is kinda of steep ...

lots of mobile phone users in india than lots of PC users

there will NOT be a subsidy for the iPhone in India

in SIngapore
-----------
it will be hit, iPod is already a hit, but out of 4 million, even if they sell 4,00,000 (10%) it will be hit, i assume there will be subsidy from SingTel on the phone

[Booga]

Yikes. Looks like I'm going to have to spend some time with babelfish localizing my app...

"Your hovercraft is full of eels!"

[milanek]

It should be available at all 3 Czech GSM carriers (O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone). It will be interesting to see pricing difference...

[PBG4 Dude]

Originally Posted by Booga

Yikes. Looks like I'm going to have to spend some time with babelfish localizing my app...

"Your hovercraft is full of eels!"

My nipples explode with delight!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

in india
----------
most of them are prepaid customers (aka GoPhone customers) if the price is rite it will be hit even then it will priced like (i guess) Rs 20,000 for 8Gb and Rs 25,000 for 16Gb which is kinda of steep ...

lots of mobile phone users in india than lots of PC users

there will NOT be a subsidy for the iPhone in India

That price is in line with other high-end phones in the country; when I was there the N95 (pre-8GB) was 30-35k Rs. With the setup in India I think their might be a large amount of single digit unit sales, even as low as one, to many of the independent shops all over the country at wholesale prices. When I was there I did notice that most of the smallest in shops in the major cities carried a high-end phone or two.

[nvidia2008]

Are all these iPhone 3Gs going to be locked? Any unlocked diamonds in the rough there? BLOODY TELCOS.

Originally Posted by shanmugam

in india
----------
most of them are prepaid customers (aka GoPhone customers) if the price is rite it will be hit even then it will priced like (i guess) Rs 20,000 for 8Gb and Rs 25,000 for 16Gb which is kinda of steep ...

lots of mobile phone users in india than lots of PC users

there will NOT be a subsidy for the iPhone in India

in SIngapore
-----------
it will be hit, iPod is already a hit, but out of 4 million, even if they sell 4,00,000 (10%) it will be hit, i assume there will be subsidy from SingTel on the phone

[satchmo]

Apple might want to hold off on launching MobileMe in India. And while they're at it, maybe beef up on the number of servers too.

If they couldn't handle the volumes on launch day, imagine what would happen with a country the size of India would have on Apple's servers.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by satchmo

Apple might want to hold off on launching MobileMe in India. And while they're at it, maybe beef up on the number of servers too.

If they couldn't handle the volumes on launch day, imagine what would happen with a country the size of India would have on Apple's servers.

The number of servers may not have been the problem according to some sources.

"I have picked up some tidbits from my Internet infrastructure sources, who tell me that:

• There is no-unified IT plan vis-a-vis applications; each has their own set of servers, IT practices and release scenarios.
• Developers do testing, load testing and infrastructure planning, all of which is implemented by someone else.
• There’s no unified monitoring system.
• They use Oracle on Sun servers for the databases and everything has its own SAN storage. They do not use active Oracle RAC; it is all single-instance, on one box, with a secondary failover.
• Apparently they are putting web servers and app servers on the same machines, which causes performance problems.

One of my sources opined that Apple clearly wasn’t too savvy about all the progress made in infrastructure over the past few years. If this insinuation is indeed true, then there is no way Apple can get over its current spate of problems. It needs a crash course in infrastructure and Internet services. Apple’s problem is that it doesn’t seem to have recognized the fact that it’s in the business of network-enabled hardware."

• http://gigaom.com/2008/08/05/mobilem...ucture-lesson/

[mello]

Is there someplace on the web that keeps a running total of 3G iPhones sold so far? I know they
have sold a million the first 3 days but I'm curious to see what the total is now.

[nvidia2008]

Don't forget the main problem outside of Mobile Me has a lot to do with the Telco systems, not so much Apple. Like O2's epic fail in the UK which has a lot of challenges similar to what you mentioned below. Rubbish system, tons of Oracle errors, poor load management. Heck, the O2 system had problems with PRE-ORDERS, and it was unsurprisingly chaos for at least 3 to 5 days during and after the launch. In the UK, Apple Stores had to use VMWare Fusion and WIndows XP to access the Telco registration, credit checks, and all that nonsense.

If the mature, developed economies can't handle this, Eastern Europe, India, South East Asia, no offense, but, good bloody luck. Apple has got its work cut out, especially liaising with the telcos.

Originally Posted by solipsism

The number of servers may not have been the problem according to some sources.

"I have picked up some tidbits from my Internet infrastructure sources, who tell me that:

• There is no-unified IT plan vis-a-vis applications; each has their own set of servers, IT practices and release scenarios.
• Developers do testing, load testing and infrastructure planning, all of which is implemented by someone else.
• There’s no unified monitoring system.
• They use Oracle on Sun servers for the databases and everything has its own SAN storage. They do not use active Oracle RAC; it is all single-instance, on one box, with a secondary failover.
• Apparently they are putting web servers and app servers on the same machines, which causes performance problems.

One of my sources opined that Apple clearly wasn’t too savvy about all the progress made in infrastructure over the past few years. If this insinuation is indeed true, then there is no way Apple can get over its current spate of problems. It needs a crash course in infrastructure and Internet services. Apple’s problem is that it doesn’t seem to have recognized the fact that it’s in the business of network-enabled hardware."

• http://gigaom.com/2008/08/05/mobilem...ucture-lesson/

[talksense101]

The iPhone launched in India last week with a retail price of 31000Rs (710USD) for the 8GB and 36000Rs (825USD) for the 16GB model. It is tethered to the carrier, but not to any particular plan. Mobile plans are quite cheap over here - as low as 2 cents a minute for some plans.

Even without a subsidy the cost of the device is just plain stupid. Given the fact that 3G spectrum allocation in India is still under negotiation, this makes the iPhone 3G a ridiculous priced EDGE device.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by talksense101

The iPhone launched in India last week with a retail price of 31000Rs (710USD) for the 8GB and 36000Rs (825USD) for the 16GB model. It is tethered to the carrier, but not to any particular plan. Mobile plans are quite cheap over here - as low as 2 cents a minute for some plans.

Even without a subsidy the cost of the device is just plain stupid. Given the fact that 3G spectrum allocation in India is still under negotiation, this makes the iPhone 3G a ridiculous priced EDGE device.

Last year when I was there the N95 (which is 3G) w/out the 8GB built-in storage was in that ball park.

PS: Why haven't we seen a single story about the iPhone in another 20 countries since the launch last Friday? Is the interest so low at the price point that there is absolute no worthwhile news to report?

[GizmoLuvr]

Originally Posted by talksense101

The iPhone launched in India last week with a retail price of 31000Rs (710USD) for the 8GB and 36000Rs (825USD) for the 16GB model. It is tethered to the carrier, but not to any particular plan. Mobile plans are quite cheap over here - as low as 2 cents a minute for some plans.

Even without a subsidy the cost of the device is just plain stupid. Given the fact that 3G spectrum allocation in India is still under negotiation, this makes the iPhone 3G a ridiculous priced EDGE device.

As an update I would like to point out to this story which says that iPhone sales have been quiet disappointing in India. According to a leading financial daily here, the sales numbers for both the operators (Airtel and Vodafone) combined was just around 1500 as at 9th Septmber 2008.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/ne...a/22/03/355368

The current price points of around 710/812 USD for 8/16 GB models are really not viable for the Indian market. Since the operators in India are yet to even roll-out 3G services ( which are expected to roll out not earlier than Mid 2009).

It should be kept in mind that India is the 2nd fastest growing telecommunications market in the world and Indians are really price sensitive. If Apple would have priced the device even around $450 to $550 range, it could have garnered a huge market in India.