Why the iPhone doesn't sell in India?
August 18th, 2009 | 3 Comments »Do you own an iPhone? Do you love your iPhone? Have you ever recommended anyone to buy an iPhone? If you have then you would know exactly what I am talking about. I have come across so many situations where I have tried to convince people to buy iPhone over other phones. In this post, I have used my experience in dealing with such people and combine it with my thoughts on iPhone to actually look into why the iPhone actually did not sell in India as well as it did all over the world. It may be a little late in the day for iPhone 3G but it maybe just in time for the launch of iPhone 3GS in India.
Technical specifications
The de facto standard when buying any gadget for most of the people are specifications. It’s all about megapixel for camera, it’s all about the gigahertz for computers and so on. I think the most important factor that is ignored is – What are going to do with the device? What’s the application?
“It’s not about the specs, its about the application”
If you are an amateur photographer who is going to use the camera for capturing vacations photos then you don’t really need to buy a top-of-the-line DSLR camera. People often ask me should I buy a laptop from XYZ company worth $1000. I ask them what are you going to use it for. More often than not their reply is that they are going to use it for Internet surfing and Word processing. Why not get a Netbook then? Similar is the case for the phone. People want phones with all the features but they are never ever ever going to use most of them.
In India, the mobile phone also serves as a status symbol. So when you compare specs with your neighbour, he will have an edge when he tells you that his camera is 3.2 or 5.0 MP. But do you really need a 5.0 MP camera on your phone is another question altogether. The camera on iPhone gets the work done as far as random daylight snaps are concerned and provides you a plethora of options about what you want to do with the image. There are thousands of apps which allow you to edit, enhance and share your images.
Also as far as the phone’s usage pattern is concerned, people are more used to transferring ring tones and photos via bluetooth than e-mailing them from their phone.
As far as applications go, here is what a day in the life of iPhone user looks like. Do not let the specs get the best out of you.
Features out of the box
I recall meeting a businessman who used Nokia Communicator and asking him the reason for using the phone and he said “Nokia has Office suite built-in”. People are comfortable using something if it comes loaded out of the box and ready to use.
“One of the biggest reason for Firefox being so wildly popular is because of the add-ons.”
iPhone comes installed with all the applications required for performing basic operations. However, it does not come with Office but there are lot of applications which do an excellent job and are available in the App Store (Like Quickoffice. Refer my Top 20 Free iPhone apps for more). But not everybody is comfortable in finding, buying and using stuff from the App Store. According to me, the mark of a great device/system is that it provides the required core functionality and then allows additional functions to be plugged in to the core as and when required.
Distribution channel
In India we don’t buy phones from Service provider. We are more used to visiting the nearest/trusted/relatives mobile phone outlet and buy based on the recommendation of the friendly salesman. This is a lot easier as in case of any issues you know that you are covered.
Locked phones
The system for buying cell phones in India is that the user buys a mobile phone and then chooses the service provider. The end-user has complete freedom to change carriers as and when he wishes as there is no contractual agreement. One of the sore points was that the iPhone 3G even after being sold at a premium was locked to a particular carrier (Vodafone or Airtel). This did not go down well with a lot of people as they are not used to this. Although there are ways around it to unlock the phone but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea and it voids the warranty as well.
Marketing
If you have been watching TV in India you could not have missed Zoozoo. It conveyed the message effectively and was also fun to watch. More about Zoozoo marketing on Samadswain.com.
“The advertisements did not touch upon the 2 biggest features of the iPhone:
1) iPhone is the best iPod ever
2) Appstore currently has over 65000 apps and is probably one of the biggest reasons responsible for the success of iPhone”
In contrast, the iPhone was not advertised at all on TV. Airtel aired Apple’s iPhone ads which were more about using the iPhone then about the features. Also, there was no mention in the marketing campaign of why the iPhone’s were being sold at exorbitant price of $600 in India as compared to the $199 in US. This left the Indian consumers confused.
Myth busters
There are some general misconceptions that people have about the iPhone.
Price
Price is not the primary reason for people not buying iPhone in India. I see a lot of people in India readily investing $600 in business phones/smartphones from Nokia such as E90 but would be hesitant to do the same for iPhone. For the budget conscious consumers, most of the banks in India were offering excellent EMI schemes for buying iPhone.
User Interface
People in India are so comfortable using Nokia that they are reluctant to even give other phones a try. iPhone’s interface is intuitive and does not require much learning. One of the major reasons why iPod & iPhone are so widely used is that it’s just easy to use even for newbies.
“My mom learned to use iPhone faster than Nokia or Sony Ericsson.”
One more issue that often comes up is about the absence of a physical keyboard. Lack of tactile feedback is a deal-breaker for most. But as per my experience, I am able to type faster on iPhone with auto-correction ON than I could on a physical keyboard. There is an excellent article about the iPhone’s keyboard on Daring Fireball.
In the end it all comes down to this revolutionary device changing too many things too fast for the Indian market. Given time and well-directed marketing there is no stopping the iPhone.
Disclaimer: This article does not take into consideration the techno-savvy crowd.
it just wasnt fair spending +30k on a phone that did not encompass basic functions..this yr tho, its a whole new ball game..the 3GS will be snapped up in no time..
Price is the main hindrance
@S: Basic functions were covered apart from message forwarding. And all it needed to fix it was a software update.
@Rushabh: You get what you pay for. All other smartphones such as HTC Android with similar capabilities are priced in the same range. If you are buying gold you have to pay gold’s price. If you expect it to sell at the price of silver then that is not going to happen.