Apple's iPhone launched in India

NEW DELHI (AFP) — Sticker price shock has spoiled the launch party of Apple's iPhone in India, home to the world's fastest-growing mobile market, local media said Saturday. The 3G or third generation phone sells for more than triple its US price tag in India -- a new key battleground for makers of high-end mobile handsets thanks to its increasingly affluent middle-class. iPhone launch events in major Indian cities on Friday, replete with confetti and cheerleaders, drew none of the big crowds and hysteria that greeted the phone's debut in the United States, Europe and other parts of Asia last month. "Hefty price tag keeps queues away," said India's Economic Times daily. The eight-gigabyte model of the phone, which includes a built-in iPod and a desktop-class web browser, sells for 31,000 rupees (712 dollars), while the 16 GB version goes for 36,100. Technology writer Nitya Chaudhury told AFP: "I like its looks, but at that price I can get something cheaper that does as much." A spokesman for India's leading mobile company Bharti Airtel -- which is selling the iPhone along with rival Vodafone Essar, owned by Britain's Vodaphone Group Plc -- said it was "not possible to give a (sales) trend." But, in what appeared to be an attempt to explain away the low buzz surrounding the product, he said the "iPhone is a very aspirational project -- it's not conceived of as a mass device." A manager at one New Delhi phone showroom, who did not want his name used, said sales of the iPhone so far were "not very good. We've had a few buyers and people just in to look at it." The Indian price is far higher than the 199 dollars paid by US customers to the telecom giant AT&T for the phone. AT&T heavily subsidises the phone and makes money by tying the customer to an expensive annual subscription. But vendors say they are confident the Apple gadget will find its place in the Indian market despite the higher price and the fact that India has yet to launch 3G networks needed to support faster browsing and downloads.

Apple: 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold in three days

Defying sluggish sign-up procedures and a worldwide crash of its computerized activation system, Apple sold one million iPhone 3Gs in its first three days on the market, according to a company press release Monday morning.

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

Although at least one analyst had predicted that Apple and its partners would sell a million units worldwide at launch, a survey of stores conducted by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster put sales at less than half that many.

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Apple iTunes 7.7

In his 2008 Macworld trade show keynote, one of Apple CEO Steve Jobs's big announcements was that you'd now be able to rent movies as well as just download and buy them outright. He admitted that Apple had bet wrong in offering only sales of downloaded movies. Apple iTunes, version 7.6, made the new rental service possible. A new point release, 7.7 makes a few significant changes—the most notable being support for the Apple App Store and the iPhone 3G, but the company has yet to address our complaint about the store's lack of a music-subscription service.

Version 7.4, of iTunes added support for new iPods, addressed some serious security vulnerabilities and added closed captions, a rating system, and a larger window for viewing video on your computer. That version dovetailed with the release of the classic, the touch, and the third-generation nano. It also let iPhone owners create custom ringtones from songs bought on the iTunes Music Store (for a buck more per song). Version 7.5 added support for the iPhone in territories besides the U.S. and implemented several bug fixes.

With version 7.6, the big news was the introduction of movie rentals, but, disappointingly, music-subscription options like those offered by Napster,Rhapsody, and other Windows Media-based services were—and are still—nowhere to be found. Music remains an à la carte, 99-cents-per-track proposition. For some reason, Apple still wants to give this advantage to the Microsoft Zune. On the positive side, now the DRM-free, higher bit-rate tracks available from the iTunes Plus section of the music store cost the same 99 cents as other songs.

The biggest new feature in iTunes 7.7 is the introduction of the new App Store, a resource for downloading all of those third-party applications to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Since launching the update late last night, the App Store has begun rolling out a number Apps. Ahead of the 7.7 launch, Steve Jobs gave the folks at The New York Times a sneak preview of the store, saying that it would, "offer more than 500 software applications, including games, educational programs, mobile commerce and business productivity tools."

However, despite the large selection, and Apple's fairly notorious control over the ties between its software and hardware, Jobs insisted that taking a big percentage from the apps was far from the company's goal "We are not trying to be business partners," he told The Times. Instead the company is looking to "sell more iPhones." Seventy percent of the apps' sale price will go to their designers. A quarter of the first 500 app will be free. Ninety percent of the remainder will be available for $9.99 or less. For more, see our AppScout iTunes/App Store story.

The new release of iTunes will also let you "sync music, video, and more with iPhone 3G," according to Apple. The company is also offering Remote, a free application downloadable from the App Store that will let you control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home. We'll be testing both claims very shortly. Check our complete coverage of iPhone 3G for more on that.

Source:Pcmag.com