India doesn’t like iPhones
Anyone who followed my old blog knows I am not a fan of Apple computers ;) So it is with great satisfaction that I announce that at least when it comes to iPhones, India agrees.
India is second only to China as far as amount of mobile phone users is concerned (interestingly enough, in India they are commonly used in rural areas), but it has more new subscriptions each month than any other country.
Some numbers:
- 11 000 iPhones sold in India since the launch in September
- 7.7mln new subscribers to GSM networks in India in October alone
Rather crushing numbers, huh?
Interestingly enough, it seems that Apple never expected to do well in India - it only allocated 50 000 iPhones to India’s stores. The inquirer goes on to write:
Promotion of phones in India is a complicated business and it seems that Apple and its chums could not be bothered putting the effort in.
In other words they didn’t want to spend money on a Bollywood star to promote it ;) I’m actually not kidding - that’s how the mobile phone industry works in India. Every mobile company has a brand ambassador.
It’s Shahrukh Khan for Nokia, Hrithik Roshan for Sony, Abhishek Bachchan for Motorola, Aamir Khan for Samsung and so on…
1kin
wrote on 22 November 2008 at 11:19
i hate iphones as well, they seem so much like a useless gadget to me.
i didn’t use to dislike apple, because it used to be an alternative to a pc. now it’s just a fancy pc brand, one pays mostly for the design. i wonder if it still is considered the best kind of computer for the music industry.
2Monika
wrote on 22 November 2008 at 14:26
I dislike Apple mostly because I find them dishonest and too elitist. Often you hear them say one thing and then they do another (this iPhone thing is a good example - apparently they promised a price of $199 worldwide, but then gave a 4 times higher one in India).
I expect the music industry still uses Apple Computers - habits die hard. In fact much of the film industry still does too, though that’s changing.
3kin
wrote on 24 November 2008 at 14:06
apple may be in for big trouble with the crisis on the horizon. The snobbish and elitist customers apple wants to appeal to will also face financial problems and probably turn to less fancy, cheaper products.