iPhone 4S may trip on sky-high price

The country's most expensive phone, iPhone 4S, would be launched at midnight. The handset had already seen many enquiries from eager customers, both at retail electronics stores, as well as mobile operators. However, none are raising their hopes just yet. This is because after the price of the device was announced, stores recorded negative reactions from most consumers.

“The inquiries have been as good as those for the iPhone 4 and the iPad. But we would have to wait and watch how many of these would result in sales,” said Rajan Malhotra, president (retail business strategy), Future group.

The 32 GB version of iPhone 4S costs Rs 50,900, and the 16 GB version costs Rs 44,500. The phone also has a 64 GB variant, which costs Rs 57,500.

“The prices are higher than those of laptops. Also, Nokia is launching the Lumia 800, while Blackberry, too, launched a series of phones. So, people would compare,” said Ajit Joshi, chief executive officer, Infiniti Retail. While BlackBerry's new Curve models cost Rs 20,900, the Bold model costs Rs 27,490. The Nokia Lumia is expected to be launched next month.

The iPhone would also face competition from Android handsets, which have been bestsellers, albeit at much lower price points. “The Samsung Galaxy S2 is moving very fast. A lot of people realise one can have applications similar to those of an iPhone in Androids. That is good enough from many,” said a retailer. According to Strategy Analytics data, the installed base of iOS smartphones, that is iPhone 4 and 3GS, is estimated at 700,000 units.

The new iPhone comes with a faster microprocessor, an eight megapixel camera, compared to a five megapixel camera in iPhone 4. The latest version also has a voice-recognition software called Siri, which accepts voice commands.

The target consumer for the product, many say, is the quintessential tech savvy Apple fan. iPhone 4S sold over four million units in the first weekend after its launch in the US. Globally, too, the response the response has been good, according to experts.

“The high price of the new iPhone is also due to India's currency depreciation, as well as increased prices of commodities like copper and aluminum. Prices of electronic products have gone up,” said Joshi.

Bharti Airtel, one of the operators that would sell the phone, along with Aircel, is bullish on sales. “The device has generated a lot of interest and we expect good response,” said an Airtel spokesperson.

Both Airtel and Aircel, which also sold the iPhone 4, are tweaking their earlier plans for the new version. Bharti Airtel has a special money-back plan for iPhone, which was bundled with voice minutes, text and 3G data. A subscriber can save 50 per cent on bills, thereby recovering the cost of the device over a period. Though the subscriber is not locked into their network, the operator claimed the longer a subscriber stuck to the plan, the more he would save. Aircel's data plans are combined with GPRS and Wi-Fi, which can be used at the operator's Wi-Fi hotspots.