iPhone 4 for India and iPhone 5 for US?

BANGALORE, INDIA: When the rest of the world is looking forward at the rumored iPhone 5 from Apple Inc., two leading cellular operators in India - Airtel and Aircel - only recently announced the sale of Apple's iPhone 4 in India. Though the release was speculated at the time of the global lauch of iPhone 4 with Vodafone, it has just remained a speculation only.

India is already the second fastest growing mobile market. But why is Apple Inc. hesitant to release its newer products in this vibrant market?

This big question has already seeded a  suspicion among smartphone customers weather Apple is just using Indian market to dump its older generation products.

Here are the pointers that fuel this suspicion:

• iPhone 4 launch announced in India in the second week of April. But the product was released way back in June 2010 in the US.

• The first version of iPhone was launched in US during June, 2007 but this 2G version never made it to the Indian market.

• However, iPhone 3G debuted in Indian market only in August 2008 only two months after the US launch.

• iPad1 was launched in India 10 months after the US launch.

• iPad 2 was released in US during first week of March 2011, still there is no announcement on India launch

Technically Personal, a technology blog notes “Now, this announcement of iPhone 4 in India implies that the US launch of iPhone 5 is just around the corner. Don’t be surprised to see iPhone 5 by May 2011.”

Added the blog: “Apple or the cellular companies have never dared to talk about the number of iPhones (3G/3GS) and iPads they have managed to sell to the unlucky Indian consumers. I am sure the stats show a sorry figure. But they don’t seem to mind much, as they still see India as a dumping ground.”

Shiv Putcha, principal analyst (Emerging Markets) Ovum reasons that Apple products come late to India for a variety of reasons. For a smartphone that has come to define the category, the actual number of smartphone shipments in India is still very small making for a small addressable market. Given the lack of operator subsidies, there are also concerns about affordability which works to further restrict sales.

"Another issue around affordability that doesn't suit Apple is the commoditization of VAS, music and other services in India which doesn't mesh well with their premium positioning of iTunes. Finally, the intense and near perfect competition environment for mobile services in India doesn't suit Apple's preferred model of working with operators, " he said.

According to Naveen Mishra, Lead Analyst, India Telecoms Practice, Cyber Media Research, the India mobile handsets market is the fastest growing in the world, however, most handsets sold in the country are low-end feature phones. A majority of mobile handset shipments in India are to first-time buyers and  fall in the price band "less than Rs. 5,000". Hence, Apple who's devices are high-end smartphones has found limited buyers in india. This seems to be the key reason why the company does not release its products in India at the same time as they are made available in developed markets.

iPhone 5 launch in US during December?

Apple’s iPhone 5 isn’t expected to hit the market until Christmas or early next year, according to Business Insider’s Jay Yarow. He points out to a recent note by  Avian Securities, based on conversations with a “key component supplier” to Apple, that the the iPhone 5 should go into production in September and that Apple could also be developing a lower price/lower spec iPhone model.

Wired blog quoting a source at Foxconn says the iPhone 5 is already in production, and it sports a flat metal back (as opposed to the iPhone 4’s glass back or a curved metal back like the original iPhone). It’s also expected to have a dual-core chip like the iPad 2. An image of the charging cable has surfaced, but not a finished product.

“In such a fast moving market Apple is forced to release new versions of its hardware to stay ahead. Apple clearly had first mover advantage; however, its competitors have been hot on its heals with a slew of tablet devices from big brand vendors such as Samsung, Motorola, HP, HTC and RIM, all of which have announced tablet devices which aim to replicate the Apple experience, which is notoriously difficult to match”, Ovum principal analyst Adam Leach stated in a recent interview with CIOL after Apple announced iPad 2.