i-Phone, hitting the Indian market

The eagerly awaited Apple iPhone has finally hit the Indian market. But there are a number of challenges that it may face in the market. Not just Apple, but its Indian Retail partners—Bharti Airtel and Vodafone—will have to play their roles to perfection for their customers to enjoy the iPhone. India is amongst the few markets where the partner telcos are spending huge sums training thousands of their employees to activate the iPhone. This because, unlike their western counterparts, Indian customers cannot be expected to activate the phone online. Low internet and PC penetration is a roadblock here and even amongst those in metros and large cities who own PCs, only a small minority has Apple’s iTunes on their systems. The other catch is slow internet speeds which can frustrate users attempting to download the iTunes.
“We have trained over 3,000 employees across 41 locations and 400 stores in the top 45 cities to help activate the iPhone. We have also trained a large number of our call centre executives who will help our customers activate the iPhone,” explains Bharti Airtel president for mobility Sanjay Kapoor. Mr Kapoor added that it would take customers about five minutes to activate the iPhone at Bharti’s retail outlets. Ditto to Vodafone, which has gone a step further and even given appointments at its retail outlets to its customers who have booked the iPhone to help them activate and use the device.

Buying a phone, worst than buying flats... Cheers!