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iPad Debuts in India

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today launched the iPad in India, bringing the company's popular tablet device to the country for the first time. Pricing begins at a tax-inclusive 27,900 rupees ($619) for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and extends to 44,900 rupees ($983) for the 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G models.

Apple executives noted during the company's quarterly earnings conference call last week that the iPad was available in 46 countries, with 15 countries being added over the month of January. India obviously represents one of the largest potential markets for the device, although Apple has had only limited success with other offerings such as the iPhone there due to the price-sensitive nature of the market. Despite India's large population, Apple has not yet invested significant resources in the country and has even yet to launch the iPhone 4 there.

Article Link: iPad Debuts in India
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/27/ipad-debuts-in-india/
does that mean that they are still manufacturing the ipad 1? what must the indian people think when they see the keynote of the ipad2?
 
Still introducing version 1 to new countries at this late date! This leads me to believe that Apple will continue to offer the original iPad at a reduced price, as they do with their iPhones. Either a reduced price, or iPadv2 will be more expensive, which is not unheard of in Apple-land.
 
iPhoneCollector said:
does that mean that they are still manufacturing the ipad 1? what must the indian people think when they see the keynote of the ipad2?
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qtx43 said:
Still introducing version 1 to new countries at this late date! This leads me to believe that Apple will continue to offer the original iPad at a reduced price, as they do with their iPhones. Either a reduced price, or iPadv2 will be more expensive, which is not unheard of in Apple-land.
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EXACTLY what I have been wondering. I think they probably will and knock off $100 or so to smash any potential threat from Android tablets.

Apple said before that they have room to be even more aggressive on pricing the iPad if they needed to with competition. And now they would be even more able to as production cost goes down over time etc.

My question is why is it $120.00 MORE in India??? :confused: Apple is focusing a lot on China as they should with the potential there, but second on their international radar should be India!
 
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MacFly123 said:
My question is why is it $120.00 MORE in India??? :confused: Apple is focusing a lot on China as they should with the potential there, but second on their international radar should be India!
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India has a single VAT of 12.5% that's factored into the price. Just like in the US we do not have sales tax factored into the price because it changes depending on where you buy it (in the US, sales tax rates can change within a single state). The other reason is depending on when the price was pegged to the dollar. This is no different than Europe. If you follow the link, the * next to the price is * MRP Inclusive of all taxes, which is the same as Europe.

The focus isn't on India because, "Apple has had only limited success with other offerings such as the iPhone there due to the price-sensitive nature of the market." In contrast, China isn't super price sensitive. The current generation of Chinese actually tends to splurge quite a bit, much unlike older generations. Hence increased focus, since a larger percentage of Chinese will buy Apple products, whereas the percentage of the Indian population that will become customers is much smaller.
 
iPhoneCollector said:
does that mean that they are still manufacturing the ipad 1? what must the indian people think when they see the keynote of the ipad2?
Click to expand...

You dont wanna know :mad:

Guess I'll just have to wait until one of my friends visits US and beg him/her to get one for me everytime I want new iPad :(
India obviously represents one of the largest potential markets for the device, although Apple has had only limited success with other offerings such as the iPhone there due to the price-sensitive nature of the market. Despite India's large population, Apple has not yet invested significant resources in the country and has even yet to launch the iPhone 4 there.
Click to expand...

Releasing the iPhone 9 months after the US launch (ie just 3 more months before the new model shows up), pricing it $700+ (16 GB) with no good (or cheap) data plan and not to forget the added bonus of a carrier lock (something unheard of here before the iPhone). How the hell can they hope to sell it here :confused:

But I guess I cant really blame them much as Apple is not even (or maybe barely) meeting the demand for iPhones in US/Europe, other major markets for first 6 months anyways. The way apple works, its simply not possible to launch the latest iPhone all around the world simultaneously.

Also, we only had 2G (spectrum. not the iPhone 2G) until the end of last year and 3G is just now starting to roll out here. So Jobs must have dismissed Indian market altogether anyways. "Idiots dont even have 3G there. No iPhone for you India!!" :p

And yes, the market is quite price sensitive so selling iphone for $700+ is not going to do much even if they launch it within a couple months of US release. Also, most of them dont care about the online part of a phone (yet), so Apple cant sell it for cheap and hope to recoup the costs via a contract. No one sells carrier locked phones with a multi-year contracts here. I didnt even know about carrier locked phones with contracts until the first iPhone was announced. I had to google it to find out thats how they sell mobiles in US :p

There is only one solution I can think of here (for iPhones). Just like the US, if apple starts selling the last gen model (say the 3GS in current case) at a discount, something like 350-400 USD max, carrier unlocked with no contracts or anything, they can easily sell quite a lot of them here. Sure it wont be anywhere near as profitable as when they sell the latest iPhones with 2yr contracts but Apple will atleast be able to dispose off any extra stock of last gen models. And its going to make sure they dont loose one of the (potentially) biggest market completely.

US$ 350 is a sweet spot and most smart phone buyers dont think twice before shelling out that much. I dont claim it'll sell in millions (didnt look up the actual data for smartphone sales here) but I cant see how it (the last gen iPhone) wont be the best selling smart phone in India at that price.

If apple doesnt start selling iOS for cheap here, android is going to steal the market pretty soon. I myself have been considering a blackberry or a droid for quite some time now coz after years of waiting, I've lost all hopes of becoming an iphone owner again (had a 2G, no intention of going through the jailbreaking/unlocking hell again, also no intention of paying $700+ for a 9 month old iPhone). It's going to hurt me a lot. But they didnt leave me any other option :(
 
WTF! MacRumors doesn't post any stories about things Apple outside of the US? Methinks the global paradigm is shifting. Methinks, that it's about ********** time. Sell the products Apple. See what happens when Steve takes time off?
 
when i clicked on this story i thought i was going to see a picture of a sea of people mobbing an aapl store in india somewhere - not even sure there is an aapl store in india - cool if were located near taj mahal
 
nylonsteel said:
when i clicked on this story i thought i was going to see a picture of a sea of people mobbing an aapl store in india somewhere - not even sure there is an aapl store in india - cool if were located near taj mahal
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Apple Retail doesn't exist here, but two of the large Premium Resellers have their own Stores which mirror the Apple Stores.
 
Several people that want an iPad in India already have it. All of Apple's products are priced significantly higher for the sub-continent and the people that want Apple products usually get them cheaper from the US or Asia Pacific.
 
The chinese population, as said before, does tend to spend more money then indians.

Indians are pretty cheap, I just gotta look at my parents ;). For whatever reason though I'm not cheap at all, not sure if thats a good or bad thing.
 
Omg, now we're going to see iPads in those bollywood movies where they have a dance/singing routine every 5 min. They would never expose an american product like that though. :p
 
orfeas0 said:
Well, I don't know, they make an article about iPad debut in India, why not about Greece too?
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And how about Taiwan? No announcement when it was released here in December. Even more sucky considering it's manufactured/assembled by a Taiwanese company.
 
mKizzo said:
And how about Taiwan? No announcement when it was released here in December. Even more sucky considering it's manufactured/assembled by a Taiwanese company.
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India is a very very large market for any product, sooner this country will beat China and become highly populated country and given the rise in country economy its surely going to be a big market that no company will want to miss.
 
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How many countries are there left that still didn't get the iPad (but will at some point soon - after Feb)? This is really amazing. the new iPad2 is almost here and some countries still can't get the first version. Will they face a similar delay for the iPad2 ? Apple really needs more factories to produce the iPad (assuming this is the hold up)
 
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