Nokia, Samsung, Motorola unperturbed by iPhone

As Apple's ultimate mobile gadget 'iPhone' prepares to conquer gizmo geeks in India, rival camps are anything but perturbed saying the iconic touchscreen phone was hardly a threat to their sales.     

A lot of hype has been generated ahead of the launch of iPhone, which would be available at Rs 31,000 a piece for the 8Gb memory model and Rs 36,100 for 16GB from the stroke of midnight tonight.     

Leading service providers Vodafone-Essar and Bharti Airtel, who have been accepting bookings from customers, have said the response has been extremely good.     
Finland-based Nokia Corp, which dominates the Indian handset market, said that its sales would not be impacted by the launch. But the company's decision to launch its latest multimedia device N96 in India, almost a month ahead of global launch, speaks volumes about Nokia's concerns.     

"Our sales will not be affected by the launch of iPhone in the country...There are different segments of consumers whose needs are different," Nokia India Director-Marketing Devinder Kishore had said.     

Samsung, which also has music phones in its stable, said: "There is a global trend towards touchscreen handsets and we have a strong line-up available, which we are in the process of introducing globally and in India."     

US major Motorola is of the view that heightened interest in mobile devices benefits the entire mobile device industry.     

"The Indian mobile phone industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. With the massive size of this industry, we believe, consumers should have a wide choice of products to choose from," Lloyd Mathias, senior director (Sales and Marketing), Motorola India, said.