The iPhone you've been waiting for

Finally, the price and launch date have been announced for the much awaited iPhone 3G.
I got a mail today from Vodafone with the price quote and release date.

"The iPhone 3G will be available in India from August 22, 2008.
It will be available in 8GB & 16GB models, priced at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively."

The same iPhone in US comes at a price of $199 for 8GB & $299 for 16GB. These phones have been subsidized by AT&T in US and they compensate for the subsidy through the monthly rental plans with a contract for two year period. Telcos in India claim that the phone call per minute charges in US is around 25 cents whereas in India it's 2 cents. So, it was clear from the day one that iPhones in India won't be subsidized considering the low cost margin for telcos.

The iPhone 3G is ready for 3G network, which can provide ubiquitous broadband speed network for internet and other value services. We need to wait until next year to benefit from the features of this phone as it will take at least year for 3G network to become operational in India.

I thought of doing an analysis on alternatives available in the market.

Before starting the analysis, I would suggest you to ask yourself three questions mentioned below:

First question which comes to my mind is "Why do we need an iPhone ?" .... easy answer .... "awesomeness quotient is very high, and high will power is required to ignore such product".

Next is "Are you willing to sacrifice features owing to its awesomeness ?" ... again a trivial answer ... "We are Apple fans, don't try to brainwash us with those extra features available in other junk boxes.

Final question "Are you aware that there are other alternatives available at the same price ?" ... "who cares"... :)...

Well if you have answered all these questions correctly then you are destined to own an iPhone and I would suggest you to not to read this blog any further. All I can say is RDF(Reality Distortion Field) has engulfed another human.

Alternatives available are "Nokia N96", "Android/HTC dream phone", "HTC touch/windows mobile" etc. in the smart phone segment.

Again if you looking for something which has a better awesomeness quotient, then I regret to tell you that there are none.

If you are one of those who wants to use iPhone as a MID(Mobile Internet Device) then probably there are others which you can bank on to provide better experience.

I believe market in coming years will be more mobile centric than today. With ubiquitous network and high speed internet, it will lead to an era of MIDs.

Here is a video depicting futuristic world of MIDs.



This experience is something which none of these smart phones can provide.
Only thing missing for these MIDs is the ubiquitous internet network in India at a cheaper rate.
So, once the network is ready, these devices will have a bigger audience to cater to.

Other alternatives include Eee PC from ASUS (cute little laptop) with 7 hours of battery life.

I feel MIDs are the way forward. With a larger screen size and processing power, they will provide a mobile internet experience like never before and much better when compared to the costly smart phones.