Is Apple shying away from India more than the Middle East?

Apple launched the iPhone on June 29th last year in India with a huge bang by teaming up with Airtel and Vodafone, India’s leading mobile operators. But, it has been a constant complaint from Mac Lovers in India of Apple’s ignorance of India much as it has done with the Middle East as we all are familiar with.

It is very surprising about Apple’s attitude towards India. With respect to the iPhone, India is the second fastest growing telecom market in the world, a fact that even our homegrown etisalat has realised and is now going to be present in the Indian telecom sector. Surprisingly, there are many things I am not happy with about the iPhone pricing and policy in India and I will enumerate them here. I went to the Vodafone store as I am a long time Vodafone customer and I enquired about the iPhone this is what I found:

1. The iPhone will be locked to the Vodafone India network. Which means, if I go abroad and use Vodafone UK sim card for example, I won’t be able to use the iPhone. But, the biggest bummer is that, it is an unlimited contract, meaning I will be tied to the Vodafone India network forever, yes you read it right, forever. Because unlike in the US, there is no fixed contract. I asked the lady as to what will happen if I decide to change the operator, she had no clue and referred me to a guy who seemed to be the store’s so called iPhone ‘expert’. The smartass guy tells me if I shift to another provider, then I would have to get it unlocked using a software. I told him I know how to unlock the iPhone, what I am asking is if I pay full price for the handset and buy it from Vodafone, when will it be officially unlcoked. The guy looks at me as if I was high and tells me coolly, that Apple does not have a policy of unlocking its phones anywhere (yes, the smartass said anywhere) in the world. Now, this pissed me to no end, I sounded him off by telling him that he could have sold this crap to someone else but I know that Apple unlocks the phone in France because regulator there wants it to be. Second, I told him if he did not know jack that gave him no right to be a smart ass, as that shows he is just as stupid as an ass.

2. If I buy the iPhone from Vodafone, I can only take it in to the Vodafone store and not to Apple. Now, this is a major bummer, with a customer experience like that, how do they expect me to believe Vodafone knows anything substantial about the iPhone.

3. The prices are too high for the locked iPhone, whereas I am getting the same iPhone at substantially 10-15% lower at grey market and some of them claim that it is officially unlocked version from Singapore/Hong Kong.

4. Indian networks are not yet 3G and there are hopes that the newly elected government would introduce them this year, but that would still mean it will take 9-12 months to implement it.

Considering these 3 major issues, I think it is not a big surprise that the iPhone sold through official channels is not doing so well. That is one case in point, where Apple is not doing so well in India. There has been no clue about what Apple’s strategy with respect to India is going to be.

Now, moving to the Mac side of the game. Apple has traditionally not been a very strong player in its traditionally strong home and student segment because of the high cost associated with the Mac (the MacBook 2.4 GHZ unibody retails for close to Rs. 100,000 – that’s a bucket load of money to spend on a notebook.)

Apple has shied away from making a direct entry into retail in India instead deciding enter into a partnership with Reliance Digital, which promises to open 60 iStores in India. But, again I am skeptical about it, because of the number of complaints that consumers have about Reliance Digital and their in-store customer service reps when it comes far less complicated stuff like LCD TVs and other home appliances.

We all know that many people who will be interested in buying a Mac maybe looking to switch. There is a need for evangelism of what the Mac can do for you. Something of the sort that Shufflegazine does in the Middle East.

But, the thing is that as users/customers we can only do much and the rest is upto Apple to open its eyes and see the opportunity it is missing in both the Middle East and in India. Why is Apple shying away, that seems to be the most puzzling question.