After Dengue, India gets Apple fever

The release of Apple’s new iPhone 5 was met with the similar frenzy in India as in other places around the world. There were queues of people lining outside stores to grab their first piece of the latest iPhone. Is the Apple fever catching over in India?

Just days after the launch of iPhone5 most retailers are already out of stock, reported Wall Street Journal blog yesterday. People lining in front of stores was something which has not happened in India on a device launch. Indian market has not been very friendly to Apple devices. The India market is dominated by Samsung Micromax, Nokia smartphones mostly and many low cost feature phone. According to an IDC report the in quarter 2 this year Samsung dominated by a whopping 51 per cent of market share. Apple had just 1.2 per cent of the market, which was half of what it was a year back.

Apple faces special challenges in India ad Indian customers prefer their mobile phones to be low cost or inexpensive. 70 per cent of the mobile phones sold in India are less than Rs 5500. And the market for high cost devices especially in phone segment is already finding it difficult to take the lead. iPhone 5 has been placed at s cost of Rs 54,500 for the lowest storage combination, which is quite high in terms of Indian market.

Further, Apple does not have its own store in India and has to sell its devices through other retailers which reduces its profits. Yet, the response the device has received leaves a hope for the Cupertino giant. “We were sold out within 24 hours of launch. It’s all gone,” Himanshu Chakrawarti, chief executive of The MobileStore says as quoted by the Wall Street Journal Blog. We found that pieces are out of stock at Saholic, but can still be ordered at some other retailers