sree

bobschlob said:

India agrees to used iPhone deal, or everybody 'walks'.
Nut-up, Apple!

The reason they refused is due to the anti-dumping laws. Typically used equipment have not been allowed to be imported to India in the last few years and the laws have been made much stricter, as those provisions were taken advantage of by unscrupulous businesses to dump electronic waste from the developed countries in india. They can get it processed in india cheaper, but a lot of environmental issues arise (like mercury or lead poisoning etc.). 

So, this is more a case of Apple not being given an exception, and it is fair considering none of the other companies are allowed to import used phones either.

So, like they had before iTunes 12?? Now it looks just like the old iTunes interface.

gatorguy said:

I posted the Canalys stats here a couple days ago when I received them. 

The Indian smartphone market grew 12 percent YoY, 24.4 million units shipped. The top five vendors (Samsung, Micromax, Intex Lenovo and Lava) remained the same as this time last year with Lenovo posted pretty impressive growth of 63% compared to last year.

Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and LG were market-share losers since the Indian market is trending towards low-cost handsets. 

Apple, currently #8 in India, did experience the second largest growth and not lagging far behind Lenovo,  so there's certainly plenty of room to grow more. 

Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and LG were market-share losers since they produce utter trash and charge a lot for it. Nobody wants to be on the windows platform due to the apps, blackberry is a dead animal, sony makes great hardware but are so late in releasing latest android software and charge so much for old android that they get constantly pipped by the other vendors, and LG is not a phone maker (even if they think they are), they make washing machines and TVs.

There are some significant roadblocks that apple needs to deal with first though 

Many of their software services are weak to non-existent in india. 
 - iBooks Store has like 500 books total (all from gutenberg), 
 - the apple maps is laughable at best with almost no POI information even in tier-1 cities, no navigation, no flyover, no schools, no hospitals, no train stations, you get the picture.. Damn I work out of a huge IT SEZ and it is not even mentioned in the maps. Everyone including me uses google maps (and I am someone who has 100+ accepted corrections/additions in apple maps!!).
- iTunes music is slightly better, but it only really has music from the last 3-4years. most of the old stuff is missing. Also, they only have hindi music, most of the regional music is non-existent (India is like europe with about 100+ languages, but there are about 10 major ones where there are significant music and movie industries).
- I had some hope for iTunes movies with their renting model, but ever since netflix made an entrance a few months ago they have driven everyone else out of that nascent market. I know of no one who rents from iTunes movies any more.
- the penetration of macs is so low here, that the ecosystem advantages are hugely nullified. Good thing is, it is atleast growing. (btw, everyone who has a mac already has an iphone and possible an ipad too).
- Almost everyone who uses an iphone here uses the 'iTunes on windows', and THEY ALL HATE iTUNES!! (haven't yet found any exceptions).

The good thing, there is I think a unanimous consensus that apple has the best quality hardware, and the most responsive UI.

About me - I have been a mac user in india since 2005 when apple made the shift to intel, an ipad user since ipad2 released and finally saved up enough to get an iphone-6 after years of using a cheapo $90 crap-droid phone.

A simple and possibly effective feature for india, and all the bigots are out in full force on the forum.

The impact of this on iphone or iphone users is minimal. The idea is to simply tie the emergency-location-police loop in an effective manner. Also, its use as a deterrent can't be underestimated. How inclined do you think a criminal would be to proceed further if he knows that the panic button has been pressed by the other party?

Would something like the 'Nirbhaya case' have happened with this feature? Probably not.

And all those people making comments about police etc. Please be aware real life is not like the movies. There are good cops, bad cops, diligent cops, lazy cops and all other kinds of cops. Police response in cities tends to be better than in rural areas, police response to rapes/murders tends to be better than politically involved issues. I think this feature is a good thought, if implemented well.