At the stroke of midnight, the much awaited iPhone 3G will be available in India. However, we might not see serpentine queues of people waiting outside Airtel or Vodafone stores like we witnessed in other countries where the iconic phone has been launched. Why? Because consumers think that the carriers have priced the phone way out of their reach. 

Ever since the iPhone 3G was launched on July 11, Indian consumers have dreamt of owning one for USD 199 or its equivalent in Indian currency, which turns out to be Rs 8,660. However, consumers were in for a big shock when both Vodafone and Bharti Airtel announced the prices (the 8GB version of the iPhone 3G has been tagged at Rs 31,000 and the 16GB at Rs 36,100). 

Bharti Airtel claims to have over 200,000 pre-bookings before the prices were announced. But even their officials are not sure how many of these customers will actually buy the phone. “I must assure you that we are not making any profits by selling the iPhone 3G. We are only providing network services and the prices have been fixed by Apple,” said Sanjay Kapoor, president, mobility, Bharti Airtel. Ironically, there are over 30,000 unlocked first generation iPhones already running on Bharti’s network across the country.

While Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple claimed that the iPhone 3G will come at ‘half the price’ of the original iPhone, he was probably relating it to markets where the carriers lock customers with a two-year commitment plan and hence, the carriers subsidise the handsets for the consumers. “However, in India, that model does not work as majority of users are pre-paid and even post-paid subscribers do not sign any commitment with the carrier,” said Kapoor. It is for this reason that the subsidisation of handsets is not popular in the country. 

To make up for the high price of the phone, Airtel is bundling 500 MB of data usage every month for the next 12 months. According to the company, an average data plan subscriber uses 110 MB of data a month and it expects the usage to go up to 250 MB for iPhone 3G users. Unlike other countries there are no unlimited data plans available and subscribers will have to pay 30 paise for every 50KB used over the free 500 MB. But does it justify the phone’s price is a different matter.

Airtel will start selling the iPhone 3G tonight in six cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata – while the company claims to make it available in 65 cities tomorrow.