dream seems to have turned sour????

BY : Neeraj Saxena

When we reported in July that iPhone would be launched in India in August within 11 weeks of its global debut, a large number of readers had written in enthusiastically that they would “go for it”.

It has just been a few days and the dream seems to have turned sour for a large number of potential buyers with price being quoted as the single biggest deterrent.

Ever since Indiatimes Infotech -- which was the first to report the pricing of Rs 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,100 for the 16 GB models -- carried a story last Wednesday on Vodafone’s pricing, a large number of readers have been writing in with their comments, ranging from negative to sarcastic.

Three days after the launch, irate readers are still writing in to say how they feel cheated by Apple’s pricing decision and how, in their opinion, Apple has no strategy for a huge market like India. In fact, one reader even suggested that Apple had committed hara-kiri by allowing the two Indian operators -- Airtel and Vodafone -- to fix such an “exorbitant and arbitrary” price tag on iPhone.

“They have begun to realize their mistake and time is not far before they are forced to slash the prices. Why else would they start lining up loans and EMI options so soon,” wondered Neeraj Jain from Bangalore.