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Apple to Restart iPhone 4 Production for India, Indonesia and Brazil
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Plans where you make a downpayment of Rs 5000 (90$), get a 5s and pay Rs 3000 per month which has your carrier costs built in. Total rip off considering Rs300 (5$) can get you around 2GB of data on any carrier.
The A4 chip just keeps on giving. A four year production run on a mobile processor is astounding.
I live in India and see the masses, everyday. You don't. Since you yourself said 2-3% of 1.2 billion is a lot, doesn't it imply that a lot of people own an iPhone in India?
It was reported last year that the iPhone sales in India grew 400% year-on-year! This was 8 months ago. Ever since 5C and 5S have been launched, it is selling like hot cakes as Apple retailers are out of stock most of the time.
Source for the above information - Times of India, Economic times and all over the internet.
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Buy back, price cut, accessories, 5 to/or 10% cash back on certain credit/debit cards, monthly payment schemes and selling through carriers.
Apple keeps trying different things every now and then.
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Keeping abreast with this latest scheme, it has been revised to Rs. 3,599 per month, all inclusive for the 5S and 2,999 all inclusive for the 5C. Apart from that, you need not pay any down payment. Please don't provide false information.
You get 2G/EDGE/GPRS for 300 bucks. Reliance (the carrier selling the iPhone through this scheme) gives you 3G data. Considering internet speeds in India, that's a huge difference. Please provide complete details.
And as for the source this information is from the carrier's page and again, all over the internet!
I live in India for 4 months a year, again don't make blanket statements. Dont give me this 400% sales increase, do you have any hard data to show the sales numbers ? NO, as I said, yes iPhones are selling in numbers, but as a % of population, its less than 5%.
You said everyone has an iPhone, that is just pure BS. 50% of the people cant even afford full meals. You see the masses carrying an iPhone ? Sorry, does not add up, either you live in a super posh area, or I don't know. Only if masses could afford an iPhone,sigh.
The tech in personal computing has advanced to the point that it doesn't die that quickly anymore if it's "good enough" in terms of functionality, useability and reliability.
I still use my 2004 iBook almost every day. All my business books are on it (and BYOB doesn't even make an express version any more), and with Word 2004 (with docx extension), it's my around the house lap writer.
My Canon Pixma and scanner are of the same vintage and work well with Photoshop CS1 on my newer (but not new) desktop - still an incredible photo editing tool.
And heck, 400 M+ people are getting by on Windows XP.
Just like cars, people are keeping their digital stuff longer. So they don't build 'em like they used to. And that's a good thing.
And then there's this: remember that VW kept making the bug for sale in some countries for like 30 years or longer after they quit selling them in Europe and the US.
So, I dunno how this can work out, but there's precedents of sorts.
You're right on point with that. A friend of mind had an iPhone 4, running . iOS 5/6 (I believe?) and was sent an "upgrade" email by Apple to upgrade to iOS 7. Well, that was just Low of Apple to do that WHEN they know that there's going (and was) problems with the iPhone 4. He was SO damn pissed.
[Hey Apple!! iOS 7 does NOT work well on the iPhone 4, it's really ****** to let users upgrade to iOS 7. Get my point].
This makes no sense going back to the 4, why not the 4S? The main reason, the 4S has one cell chip, one model that does all the CDMA/GSM carriers...the 4 had several models to cover all the carriers...for production reasons, it would be easier for apple to just sell the 4S over there. 
. (Plus, as others have mentioned, it is crippled with iOS 7, doubtful it will run iOS 8, unless they strip it down.)
(Remember, neither has LTE, the 5/5c/5s do, and this is part of the reason the 5c is more expensive than 4/4S, this and the much faster A6 processor. The outside case is a much smaller percentage of the cost of the phone than most people realize. They made the 5c polycarbonate for more variety of colors & durability, not for lower cost. The other reason for the 5c instead of just bumping the 5 down in price is they changed the LTE chipset inside to work with more carriers and fewer models than the 5 did. ...The same LTE chipsets used in the 5s.)
. (Plus, as others have mentioned, it is crippled with iOS 7, doubtful it will run iOS 8, unless they strip it down.)(Remember, neither has LTE, the 5/5c/5s do, and this is part of the reason the 5c is more expensive than 4/4S, this and the much faster A6 processor. The outside case is a much smaller percentage of the cost of the phone than most people realize. They made the 5c polycarbonate for more variety of colors & durability, not for lower cost. The other reason for the 5c instead of just bumping the 5 down in price is they changed the LTE chipset inside to work with more carriers and fewer models than the 5 did. ...The same LTE chipsets used in the 5s.)
This is the stupidest decision ever.
Apple is supposed to have the best supply side contracts in the business, and they are going to use that to turn out an obsolete phone with an obsolete iOS?
I mean even the 5s/c are trailing edge right now, at least in one of the most important spec's in people's minds - screen size.
My kid's 5s continues to crash once or twice a day ... so the A7 is great in tests and for bragging rights, but has some bugs that need to be worked out.
Apple could have OWNED the smartphone market for DECADE if it had used marketing clout and good supply contracts to pound the emerging Android market into a 5-8% sliver. Instead their strategy is to always turn themselves into a premium, but niche, player. As a loyal shareholder, I seethe.
Apple is supposed to have the best supply side contracts in the business, and they are going to use that to turn out an obsolete phone with an obsolete iOS?
I mean even the 5s/c are trailing edge right now, at least in one of the most important spec's in people's minds - screen size.
My kid's 5s continues to crash once or twice a day ... so the A7 is great in tests and for bragging rights, but has some bugs that need to be worked out.
Apple could have OWNED the smartphone market for DECADE if it had used marketing clout and good supply contracts to pound the emerging Android market into a 5-8% sliver. Instead their strategy is to always turn themselves into a premium, but niche, player. As a loyal shareholder, I seethe.
What is SiLly is You, I Think.
i-Phone 4 Has been THE BEST SMARTPHONE EVER on SmartPhone History and It's STILL RELEVANT, though It Hasn't Got Some Functions that were Incrementally Added Later Such As siri etc.
Relaunch of i-Phone 4 Has 2 Significant Meanings.
One is, Of Course, to Lower Price Point of Lower End Model.
And The Other is Out of IT Literacy Point of View.
Not All The People who Buy The Latest Models Necessarilly Need Entire FULL Functions on i-Phone, Particularly Incremented after i-Phone 4.
Even in Developed Countries Quite A Few People are At A Loss in front of So Many, in Other Word, TOO MANY Functions on Their Smart Phone.
They Definitely Want to Experience " Seamless, Flawless & Effortless " InterNet Browsing Different from Feature Phone on Their SmartPhone, but Other Than THAT What They Persue out of Their SmartPhone Are More or Less LIMITED.
As I Told You, i-Phone 4 Has Been THE BEST SMARTPHONE EVER, Whether You Admit or NOT, and IT IS PERFECT IN ITS WAY.
So as A Simplified Smartphone Now for Ordinally People that are NOT GEEKS nor NEED FULL FUNCTIONED LATEST VERSION nor Want Expensive ONE, i-Phone 4 Can't Be Beaten by Any Other Manufacturers' Any Other Model.
To Lower Price Point of i-Phone 5c is Another Option as You Say, but Have You Ever Used i-Phone 4 ?
i-Phone 4 Made of Gorrilla EnStrengthened Glass Feels VERY VERY POSH Different From i-Phone 5c Made of Plastic.
Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, Referred it as " Like Jewel " when it was Launched.
ALL IN ALL, Apple's Move ReIntroduction of i-Phone 4 is WISE STRATEGY, I Suppose.
If It Goes WELL in India, Indonesia and Brasil, They May As Well Sell i-Phone 4 Again EVEN in Developed Countries Such as U.S. Or Japan.
Because It Turned Out that Transitional Speed from Feature Phone to SmartPhone Last Year Sluggished for The First Time.
The Biggest REASON for THAT is People, Especially Elderly People Don't Want to Use TOO MUCH COMPLICATED FULL FUNCTIONED LATEST VERSION of SMARTPHONES !
So There's REALLY NEED & ROOM for Simplified SmartPhones as A Substitute of Feature Phone.
Sorry to burst the bubble but iOS 7.1 runs brilliantly on iphone 4. I am truly sick and tired of people complaining about iOS 7. Yes up to 7.1 has been buggy and full of issues but it was the early versions of the OS. People keep saying they want iOS 6 ... Your talking about the final build. As the release of 6 was far far worse than what we have now. With 7.1 beta 5 even the iphone 4 runs like a dream.
Well, acording to this survey, Windows phone is ahead of iOS in India and other emerging makrets
http://news.yahoo.com/windows-phone-looks-set-blow-past-ios-several-190525364.html
Well, they don't own Oracle Solaris, Google Maps or Android, so they can't sell that...
That being said, for the money they intend to charge for the iPhone 4 in those markets, the people there can buy CURRENT technology from Apple's competitors.
I've never seen an iPhone 5C in the wild - only the 5S. Could be that nobody in Germany was stupid enough to buy last year's relabeled, recolored technology when they could have the current model for almost the same price...
For once, Apple's customers weren't as dumb as Apple thought.
No, it doesn't.
I've used iOS 7 on my iPhone 4 since 7.0 beta 3, and it's been a rough ride. Control Centre is laggy, launching apps is slow, lock screen behaviour is erratic, volume controls are delayed, and I keep having to restart the phone to get my data connection back.
Currently running iOS 7.1 beta 5, and it's not much better. For the last iOS version this phone will run.. it's not pretty. Apple obviously don't devote the same amount of time to optimise iOS 7 for the A4 as newer chips. Understandable, but frustrating.
This is insulting! Why not just sell iPhone 4S at the price of Galaxy Grand and iPhone 5C at the price of Galaxy S4 Mini?
I live in Indonesia, and just so everyone aware, the 16GB iPhone 5S sold at twice the price Galaxy S4 and 2.5x the price of recently launched Nexus 5. Right now, at the price of 16GB iPhone 5C, you can buy GS4 + Galaxy Tab.
The subsidized price doesn't help either. I paid around $20 for internet + SMS + phone call per month (no contract). However, the bundling price for 16GB iPhone 5S is $1000 with one year contract at ~$50/month. While at the same operator, they're selling GS4 bundling at the price of $200 with one year contract at ~$35/month.
So, you do the math why iPhone marketshare is a failure in Asia, specifically South East Asia. Just FYI, Samsung GS2/GS3/GS4 and Note 1/2/3 marketshare is north double digits here, so yeah, we can afford to buy expensive stuff, as long as the pricing scheme is reasonable compare to competitor.
I can afford to buy the latest, it's my bread and butter, of course I always have budget for iDevices. However, as an app developer, I'm seriously worry with Apple's way of doing business in Asia. Right now, 99% local iOS apps is not updated since 2012 (yeah, forget about iPhone 5 and iOS 7 support), while its Android counterpart got updated every month... When it comes to banking app, iOS is useless! That's why I decided to buy Nexus 5, to do my billing on the go.
If Samsung can sell their GS4 at competitive price as their US pricing, I don't see why Apple can't, they're just being a dick when it comes to Asia!
I live in Indonesia, and just so everyone aware, the 16GB iPhone 5S sold at twice the price Galaxy S4 and 2.5x the price of recently launched Nexus 5. Right now, at the price of 16GB iPhone 5C, you can buy GS4 + Galaxy Tab.
The subsidized price doesn't help either. I paid around $20 for internet + SMS + phone call per month (no contract). However, the bundling price for 16GB iPhone 5S is $1000 with one year contract at ~$50/month. While at the same operator, they're selling GS4 bundling at the price of $200 with one year contract at ~$35/month.
So, you do the math why iPhone marketshare is a failure in Asia, specifically South East Asia. Just FYI, Samsung GS2/GS3/GS4 and Note 1/2/3 marketshare is north double digits here, so yeah, we can afford to buy expensive stuff, as long as the pricing scheme is reasonable compare to competitor.
I can afford to buy the latest, it's my bread and butter, of course I always have budget for iDevices. However, as an app developer, I'm seriously worry with Apple's way of doing business in Asia. Right now, 99% local iOS apps is not updated since 2012 (yeah, forget about iPhone 5 and iOS 7 support), while its Android counterpart got updated every month... When it comes to banking app, iOS is useless! That's why I decided to buy Nexus 5, to do my billing on the go.
If Samsung can sell their GS4 at competitive price as their US pricing, I don't see why Apple can't, they're just being a dick when it comes to Asia!