BGR: iPhone 5 will be sold exclusively by Apple in India
Starting with the iPhone 3G, Apple’s iPhone has always been sold by the carriers in India. Since there’s no subsidized phones in India, the carriers have always sold the phone at full price and have clubbed special plans to go along. This is going to change when the iPhone 5 goes on sale in India, says BGR India’s Rajat Agrawal:
Apple’s Indian carrier partners Aircel and Airtel won’t sell the iPhone 5 in India this year. Instead, Apple will take over the distribution process for the iPhone 5 as well as the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, multiple sources have confirmed to BGR India. Apple India has appointed Ingram Micro and Redington for distributing iPhones and has already ramped up its sales team to prepare for the iPhone 5 launch.
While I’d known for a few weeks now that Apple would be selling the new iPhone directly in India, I did not have any info that this was going to be exclusive. I don’t think this’ll have a major impact on the price, considering the Rupee is already very weak against the US Dollar. However, this at least means a much better retail experience when buying the iPhone 5.
On the Nano SIMs that the carriers will be offering, Rajat says:
The Nano SIM card package will also include adapters to convert it to a Micro SIM or a regular SIM to ensure the user is able to use it with other phones too.
This is good news too. I often have to swap the SIM when I get phones for review, so this means I won’t have to grab some adapters off eBay.
Now if only Apple also introduced the online Apple Store here.