There was an article on why the iPhone was a flop when it came to India.. Click here for the link.
But was it the real problem?
Of course price was one of the major setbacks. People expected or rather dreamt that iPhone will be subsidized in India. So most of the gadget gurus expected a pricing of 22K - 25K for the phone here. I was really shocked to see a tech site named techtree.com dreaming Rs 12000 for iPhone. Apple(or was it the carriers?) disappointed all of them and priced it at a hefty 34K. For 34K Indians expect a laptop to be free with the phone.. :-) Yeah, it was really crazy to price it at that level.
Now, was it only about the price?
NO..
Apple didn't care about Indian market. Rather, they don't care about any market. They set the rules in any product and the fanboys just followed. There was no customization for the Indian market. Apple's "one-size-fits-all" theory was once again followed and failed in India.
Here are some of the missing "features" of the iPhone when it comes to our market.
1. No video recording and the below avg camera. Indians are heavy "mobile video" creators. Most of us don't own a handycam and our mobile phones are probably the only digicam/handycam we've. No wonder Sony Ericsson cybershot phones are very popular in this part of the world.
2. No bluetooth file transfers. Even strangers you meet on the bus asks sometimes to transfer a ring-tone or a wallpaper to his/her mobile.
3. No custom/mp3 ring-tones - This is a major dampner.
4. No message forwarding - Indian mobile users are hard-core texters. Just see how the networks get choked on a new year eve or diwali. And the forwarded PJs you get everyday!!
5. No replaceable battery - no need to say anymore.
6. Short battery life.
7. Carrier lock-in - One of the things we hate the most. We prefer carriers to be just data pipes and we don't want to get tied up.
Then there are these issues which was reported as cons of iPhone by the users abroad. But we don't care much..
8. No memory card slot - In case you want to add more than 8/16 GB.
9. No copy-paste.
10. No flash/java support.
That makes the list.. Comment if you've got something to add..
