“Crowds lined up outside a Gurgaon mall and a few shops in Delhi to pick up the latest Apple iPhone that went on sale at midnight on Thursday in India. And no one was daunted by the Rs 30,000-plus price,” IBN Live reports.
“The Apple iPhone 3G (third generation) was launched across India by telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone,” IBN Live reports.
MacDailyNews Take: We contacted Bharti Airtel and Vodafone to ask if people had been paid to stand in line, and they both responded: “What do you think we are, Polish?“*
“Swati, a college student, was the first one to pick up the phone at Gurgaon’s Sahara Mall. Swati was waiting at the Sahara Mall from 7 pm. The phone was handed over to her by president of Bharti Mobile Services, Sanjay Kapoor,” IBN Live reports.
“The iPhone is priced at Rs 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,100 for 16GB of memory space,” IBN Live reports. “The phones are being given on first come first serve basis.”
“Airtel has received 200,000 pre-bookings for the phone since the process had started about two months back, said Airtel president (mobility) Sanjay Kapoor,” IBN Live reports.
“According to a recent survey, more than 150,000 iPhones (2G) are already being used in the country, which have either been imported by enthusiasts or bought in the grey market,” IBN Live reports.
Full article here.
First person in India to get official Apple iPhone 3G:
*Just kidding, we did not contact Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
I wonder how much they were paid to stand in line?
great! Now when you call a tech support line, odds are that person may actually use a Mac as well. Too bad they’ll barely speak recognizable english.
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@ Driver
Dude, don’t for one second think that use of emoticons in any way diverts attention from pointless racist comments, you prick.
Just my $0.02
Alasdair Scott,
Being able to actually understand tech support on the phone is hardly pointless, nor is remarking on the ever-increasing problem of unintelligible “support” racist.
@ Big Juicy Cheeseburger
I’m sure there is an issue when tech support is outsourced to different parts of the globe, but check out both the articles and posts on MDN relating to release of iPhone in India and Poland and tell me honestly if you think there’s no hint of unpleasantness.
Alasdair Scott,
Life is often unpleasant. If you’re looking for PC (personal computer or political correctness) on MDN, you’re definitely in the wrong place and, quite possibly, Polish yourself.
200,000 pre orders… that’s a lot of cheeseburgers. Oh wait… turkeycheeseburgers.
Careful Steve or you’ll be labeled a “racist”.
It’s not racist when you speak the truth. Last time I called Tech Support was on a ReplayTV and that was India. I just LOVE the fake names they actually give you there. The real ones are nearly unpronounceable. Several times I’ve actually had to ask for someone that I can understand. And of course it’s less jobs for American workers. Then there’s the sales calls from definitly foreign call centers…. Go hug a tree dweeb.
Indians love expensive cell phones, it is kind of status symbol to many ppl. It is going to be huge success over there. By the way Indians do speak much better English than many ppl in U.S.
last time i RTFP he also included the word “polite.”
since you seem to know which languages tech support will speak i suggest you learn it or not call for support. or, grow some virtue.
Who cares if their English is perfect if it is masked by a thick accent-an accent of any kind not native to the caller (Irish, Fillipino, Indian)?
And if it is not a real problem-why do certain companies pay for tech support located in the US?
More on topic-what happened to the article stating no one would be in line for the ridiculously priced iPhone?
too bad they wont even get 1 bar reception.
Steve516… if you’re going to make a stupid joke at least be accurate… it wouldn’t be cheeseburgers or turkeycheesburgers… it would be a veggieburger or an Aloo Tikki burger.
Driver… what you said may or may not be racist but because it could go either way, history has shown that on this website it leads to a lot of racist Mac users showing their true colours. To be fair, I’ve gotten plenty of tech support from the deep south in the U.S. that I can barely understand… but I don’t judge or make fun… it’s a big world with different cultures and people… welcome to the 21st century.
no unlimited data plan 🙁
http://www.vodafone.in/existingusers/Products/Pages/iphone3g_talkplans.aspx?cid=kar
uhhhh. who cares whos on the other end of a tech support line besides a racist xenophobe.
Indians are human beings,just like the trailer trash that made the comments.
If you think its unpatriotic to send jobs overseas,start blaming the corporations that put saving payroll bottom lines, than paying Americans to do the jobs.
Indians on tech support just happen to be well educated because of social programs promoting computer tech engineering.
Too bad the US falls short in education.
Getting an iPhone is their new DHARMA in life. It will definitely improve their KARMA.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
I say bravo for the nation of India to finally experience the legal purchase and operation of the Iphone. I personally do not see how a comment on the thick accent of foreign tech support can be considered racist. I was born in Jamaica WI and if anyone on this message board ever saw the movie “The Harder They Run” with Jimmy Cliff, the movie starts out with subtitles because of the thick Jamaican accents. I myself have experience tech support from India with a thick local accent and it can be off-putting and tends to belay understanding of the point the tech support individual is trying to make. Check out the documentary “The other side of Oursourcing” people. Companies in India are aware of this and have been changing their ways by giving diction and speech lessons to any phone based personel that has to deal with the US public. Americans would have trouble with British based tech support if it had a thick cockney accent( I’m not talking about the gecco from GIECO either).
Jamaica Wisconsin?
Hey, at least they were relatively recently trained by the Brits to speak English, as opposed to what passes for southern/Texas American English which is the result of generations of inbreeding and fetal alcohol syndrome.
Oh yeah, here’s my smiley, which proves I’m not racist.
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I’ll assume Ya hey der meant it as a joke; for those who didn’t get it, Jamaica, WI stands for West Indies.
having worked in IT for many years (in the US), I have come across my fair share of IT guys from ‘South Asia’ (common euphemism for India and Pakistan). Literally every single one of them had better command of English language than their US-born and raised colleagues; their only disadvantage was their often times thick accent. In written communication, though, their American-born colleagues would frequently pass their outgoing memos by these Indian guys, to check for grammar, spelling, syntax, style and form. Go, figure… (oh, and by the way, I’m neither Indian, nor US-born).
I’m not sure but I think Apple is on a roll.
She’s cute. I like her smile.
Great for them. Look how happy they are now that the iPhone’s arrived:
(no offence intended)
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In India, Bramans and Sihks are very rich…
Just got the 16 gigger. A shame about the super high pricing , but it’s been a long wait for me. The phone is fantastic. The launch was much smaller than it would have been had the priced it lower. Let’s just hope this phone lives a long life as I don’t want to be down 800 dollars anytime soon !