A recent visit by a friend to the Vodafone Relationship center in Mumbai revealed that the iPhone 3G is no longer on sale. Vodafone and Airtel were originally selling the iPhone in India, while Airtel still provides the same, Vodafone seems to have discontinued offering the Apple iPhone 3G.
Vodafone employee at the outlet confirmed that the iPhone is off the shelves since 2 months now. So is it low demand? Or wait for the iPhone Pro / 3.0? Or just that Blackberry has a better deal with Vodafone?
Update: Vodafone updates us that iPhone is still pretty much on sale. Its just that some stores are running low on stock due to high demand.
(I shall pay another visit to Vodafone shortly to reaffirm these facts) – Update here
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i also visited vodafone in gurgaon and the guy told me that vodafone is no more selling apple iphones. I will give visit to airtel outlet now … to check whether they have also discontinued it or still selling …
Its confirmed. Vodafone is no longer selling iPhone in India. When I asked for alternative to use vodafone sim with iPhone, they told that they can unlock an iPhone which we take to them. But still, an iPhone costs 30k plus. So it wont be different from the ones which we can get from US for about 10k, unlock it and use it here in India.
even i have been checking with vodafone and have been reported of no stock of iphones since almost a month and half now at bombay and ahmedabad (i am in ahmedabad currently). A talk with one of the supply managers at vodafone lower parel bombay office said a stock is due to arrive by the end of this month (april 2009)-i dont know how true this is. I checked with airtel here in ahmedabad-they have none in stock-although airtel here said they can make available an 8GB model in som time- but i want a 16GB black model- so i dint order. Any idea if i could get a 16GB black model from airtel in bombay? Any contacts any of you guys have of an airtel store in bombay who can confirm on the availability of stock- so that i can make a special trip to bombay and get one. Any kind of help would be resourceful. Thanks in advance.
@Sharu – yes i understand it makes no sense of paying 30K n still having to unlock the phone. But the 10K US price is a subsidized rate- a large segment of the iphone cost is recovered by apple through the ATnT contract that one needs to buy with the phone. There is a workaround to terminate the contract and get the phone-but its a pain and also doesnt come to be too cheap. heres a link to check this situation
http://i.gizmodo.com/5021186/dont-buy-an-unlocked-iphone-from-att-just-cancel-a-new-contract
also according to some articles apple has started selling non contract phone at apple stores in US. But the prices of those noncontract ones again come similar to those in india – 16GB for $699 which is almost 35000INR- so no use. heres a link -
http://i.gizmodo.com/5186807/apple-selling-iphones-completely-without-att-contracts
@Nick : did u happen to go to an airtel store? Do they have stock?… do let us know. Thanks
Extremely sorry for the delay… shall visit Vodafone and Airtel both today itself!
@Ankut : Hey… that would be great if you could have a visit to these stores… and update us of the availability…. Thanks…. would wait for your notifications….
Hi keny
updated my findings, nt too encouraging