Author: Shashank Shekhar
No video recording, no SMS forward feature, no Bluetooth compatibility with other cell phones and no 3G till now, we are not talking about ordinary mobiles easily available in the market, but these are some drawbacks of India’s version of Apple 3G iPhone.
That is not all. The iPhone many people have been waiting for would burn a hole in the pocket. This much talked about phone is available for Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 for the 8GB and 16GB versions respectively, which was expected to be around Rs 25,000.
Still overlooking these drawbacks, passionate buyers of iPhone flocked at the Airtel outlet of the Sahara Mall Gurgaon and Vodafore store at the Connaught place. Besides Delhi, it is available in Mumbai, Kolkata Chennai and and Bangalore
Swati, a MBA student who was first in queue at the Sahara Mall said, “I came six hours in advance to get the honour of first official iPhone owner.” The phone was handed over to her by Sanjay Kapoor, president of Bharti Mobile Services.
Garment Exporter Aditya Mallick, who already posses an expensive Vertu set became the first person to buy iPhone from Vodafone store. Mallick was waiting to buy this Gizmo ever since 2G iPhone was launched in US on June 5, 2007. He said, “I missed the chance to bag one when it was launched in US. Even though I don’t know much about iPhone’s feature, I am glad to buy it.”
The fanfare for the mobile was not the same as it was in US, but around five enthusiastic buyers turned up to buy the iPhone at midnight from the Vodafone store. There was a 14-year-old boy at the store waiting for his chance to pick up the gadget. Rudra Khurana, a student of Modern School said, “Tomorrow is my exams and I am here to splash out on 16 GB iPhone. I am very excited as I would be the first one in my group to get it.”
Businessman Nishan Arya who calls himself a gadget geek said, “This is my first 3G iPhone and I already have five 2G iPhones.”
HOW TO GET THE PHONE:
The phone is available at first come first serve basis. iPhones will also be locked to Airtel and Vodafone SIM cards with previous customers required to have their existing SIM card with them at time of purchase.