Apple relaunching 8GB iPhone 4 in India to boost sales

Apple is said to be re-releasing the iPhone 4 in India, specifically the 8GB model, according to The Economic Times. The move comes as a result to boost sales in the Indian market, which Apple has been losing to cheaper rivals running Android and Windows Phone 8. The iPhone 4 was a popular model for Apple because of its relatively lower price compared to the newer iPhones in India. Apple and the iPhone in particular are aspirational brands in India and as such are on everyone's wishlist but the high price of the unlocked models means most people either go for the older cheaper models or some rival brand, of which there is no shortage. With the iPhone 4 being discontinued last year after the launch of the iPhone 5c and the 5s, Apple lost one of its key sellers in the Indian market, along with its customers as well. With the relaunch of the iPhone 4, Apple is trying to gain back some of these are customers. According to the source, the iPhone 4 8GB will be priced in India at around INR 15,000 ($244) through buy back schemes and EMI options. The phone is expected to go on sale as early as next week.

Lol seriously? Biggest JOKE of 2k14

Source :Apple relaunching 8GB iPhone 4 in India to boost sales - GSMArena.com news

H

^^ Lol. Only hard-core apple fan boys will buy this outdated phone.

Not bad considering the build quality of Apple products and for people who really don't care about raw processing.
If the phone is available at 15,000 INr , then it's really not that bad. At least people who are looking for smartphones with stability and smaller footprints can have one more choice.
Though , it's outdated but then you can't expect to have the latest phone for 15k .

Some people really have problems with Apple's products. Isn't 15k , cheap enough for an Apple's smartphone ?

it is a 4 year old product :\

guys decisions are based of big data

..
which indicates a demand, hence this supply..

stop thinking only from a tech pov..if people want trash, you sell trash and get rich. i.e stop being a n00b at everything else in life.. except tech.

Why not lower the price of iPhone 4s, rather than force people (looking to go apple at cheapest possible price) into buying something released early 2010

^^I agree. Why do we have to see everything from our perspective . Do you really think it's wise for some users to spend their hard earned money on features they don't need or want ??
Just for the sake of a milisecond of lag , you may be willing to spend couple of extra thousand bucks on newest technology but not everybody has that desire and lumps of money.

Don't be biased guys , appreciate innovation , and the market . Don't try to promote only what you like or want.

2-3 years from now market would be populated with 2k or maybe 4k displays , driven by monstrous processing package. And yeah of course they would be priced exceptionally.
Would you bad-mouth the decision of selling 720p 4" screen with moderately powerful package , 2-3 years from now , just because the phones in that time are primarily carrying 4k displays ??

Its a business not a charity! Profits are maximum at a particular price point.. anything lower or higher results in lesser profits.
Profit maximization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A new business may forgo max profits to gain market and mind share. But an established business has shareholders to answer to and only cares for max profits.
Every big gaming company cares only for profits. Not selling cheap games. You may have noticed this.

sushovan said:
now retarded Apple fanboys will say that this will compete with Moto G

harsh1387 said:
^^ Lol. Only hard-core apple fan boys will buy this outdated phone.

Apple still thinks of India as a dumping ground. They should've lowered 4s' price instead of relaunching iphone 4.

Not all apple fanboys like iPhone. Older members would remember Aayush Arya a hardcore Apple fanboy/devotee. He switched to android and blogged about it . Penned Thoughts

M

According to the source, the iPhone 4 8GB will be priced in India at around INR 15,000 ($244) through buy back schemes and EMI
options.

So we'd have to trade our existing smartphone to get iPhone 4 at 15k, lol? What phones will they be willing to take?

Sigh.
Its funny how apple cant do even one thing right
They are dumping the phones so more people can buy the apps - which would give em disproportionate profits.

For the sake of the mentally sound fandroids here, hope Krow does not read this

At least tell me that the hardware is updated.

But then again, the non-techies only know brand names and nothing else.

Ok whats the diff between a 3 year old iphone and a mid range droid? How come other companies can offer a phone at every price point but apple cant sell previous year phones?
The five year old phone still runs most apps. These phones age slowly. 3GS enjoyed a production run of 3 whole years. Thats the timespan for 10 versions of S.
Theres more to it than brand. Like batman edition of lumia sells on brand value in the sense being used here. Porsche edition of bb sells on brand. Armani edition of sammy sells on brand. Apple has other things going for it.

Question is : is it VFM at this price point ??? That all which matters to non techies primarily.

Anorion said:
Ok whats the diff between a 3 year old iphone and a mid range droid? How come other companies can offer a phone at every price point but apple cant sell previous year phones?
The five year old phone still runs most apps. These phones age slowly. 3GS enjoyed a production run of 3 whole years. Thats the timespan for 10 versions of S.
Theres more to it than brand. Like batman edition of lumia sells on brand value in the sense being used here. Porsche edition of bb sells on brand. Armani edition of sammy sells on brand. Apple has other things going for it.

Apple is a brand name in itself. Everyone knows Apple and everyone goes gaga over it. That is why they never need to do dumbshit like Batman edition Lumia to sell their phones. But Apple needs to make its app ecosystem a little more open so that more apps could be developed. Only then they could make a serious dent on the Android's market share.

Rishi. said:
Question is : is it VFM at this price point ??? That all which matters to non techies primarily.

The only thing that non-techies will go head over heals is that they are getting an iPhone for around 15k. I think these would sell like hot cakes.

You want apple to not have quality control. Sure the app selection process is a little random, but it still pays out developers more. Whats the diff then. You cant say droid way is the right way only, every single aspect of the ecosystem is designed for penetration.
They may be a brand, but its not just the logo that sells the product, which is true for ferrari, porsche, versace, d&g, armani versions of gadgets

Plus, the 3gs was available for 19k, refurb / exhange offer for 14.
You could always get second hand phones, so its not like an apple is out of reach if you really want one.

There are few non biased reasons not to get one

By openess I mean releasing APIs for Windows and Linux as well so that more people could develop apps with ease, without the strict requirement to own a Mac. Apple does not have to compromise its QC policies and they can get more apps for their app store.

DeSmOnD dAvId said:
By openess I mean releasing APIs for Windows and Linux as well so that more people could develop apps with ease, without the strict requirement to own a Mac. Apple does not have to compromise its QC policies and they can get more apps for their app store.

If you can generate enough profit staying close why on earth you would go open. Moreover this is totally off topic to the current context. iOS might be least developer friendly platform but that does not matter to you unless you are an app developer.

Now all the techies here, please do a little research. All the mid range android phone does not come with latest high end hardware, so in that point of view iPhone 4 is not medieval. But its true this is Apple's cheap move to capture mid range market in India.

some aspects may be painful for developers, but they do make the most $$$$ out of iOS
it's also dead convenient in the sense they only have to check if the app works on like max 7 devices instead of 4000+ and counting unique devices
yep, back end is closed. that's a weird detail that does not matter to the end user. donno if it would be better or not for all involved if that changed.

instead of making 10 phones a year, apple sells last 3 years phones. why exactly is that a rotten move. in fact, at this point the lineup of all other oems seem like spamming a range of devices to capture every price point. nothing will make haters happy. you want apple to get a cheap phone. you want apple not to dump. you dont want the non dumped cheaper version because it is not that cheap, or paradoxically, the costlier version is not that much costlier. mmx is too cheap. apple is too costly. wow. there must be like 1 device everyone has to have then, or else they are mentally challenged nub stupid fanbois. which one is this phone?

these iphones 4 will prolly ship with iOS7 instead of 6, might be a bummer for some fanbois who like 6 better.

sushovan said:
now retarded Apple fanboys will say that this will compete with Moto G

not only compete but people will go gaga over this cause "Apple" at 15k :facepalm:

And ios 7 is not what we have seen on recent deices. It lacks nearly all the ios 7 features including notification panel as well

snap said:
not only compete but people will go gaga over this cause "Apple" at 15k

why should they not? 3% if smartphones in india are apple. guesstimate that this will correct upwards and at least another 2-4% added to correct this dismal figure, to bring towards par with the market share of apple in other countries. even if a vocal percentage of them are blind classy nub snobs, they are still a marginal minority.

Thankfully the quality of this thread is much higher. So I'll just be infracting/banning a couple of people.

On topic, anyone who has used iOS 7 on an iPhone 4 will know that the phone becomes very laggy. Apple should not have brought the latest update to the phone. At least, they should have brought a stripped down version that did not lag. That's why I think it is a bad idea to re-launch this phone, even at 15k. There is no excuse for compromise in quality.

But people will buy it and they will get an experience on par with any Android phone in that range. At least iPhones don't become unusable in a few months, unlike Android phones. At the moment, I think Windows Phone is the best option in the 8k-20k range.

Well, we all expected budget 5c at less than 30k and we all know the scale of Apple now. I would be certainly surprised if iPhone 4 comes at less than 20k, though it is a 4 year old product. This also affirms our perception of Apple's perception on India (as a dumping ground).

$hadow said:
And ios 7 is not what we have seen on recent deices. It lacks nearly all the ios 7 features including notification panel as well

Where did you come across this crap? I just checked an iPhone 4. The notification panel is there and so are most iOS 7 features such as parallax view. It doesn't have AirDrop and a couple of other features due to hardware limitations, but your post still is factually incorrect.

I think iPhone 4 is slow with iOS 7. A present day's Micromax around the same price of a new iPhone 4 is more snappier. Saying by experience, not being a fanboy.

yep. there is no hard evidence yet, but they will mostly ship with 7. enough to make even a fan lose interest in the offer.
the 4 is still available in stores at ridiculous prices, despite being officially discontinued at 5S launch. so maybe apple is actually doing the dumping ground a favor by officially getting it back and reducing the prices. and btw these phones and even previous versions are on shelves in many countries, not just India.

R

Ios 7 on iphone 4 is crap. At least they should ship the same with iOS6. Though we feel they treat India as a dumping ground, still they're not dumping some crap. They're dumping good quality product, though 4 years old, yet still pretty much valid in today's era.
It's not always about hardware/specs only. It's about content as well.

Too much hypocrisy in this country

btw there is no reason to hate the company, hate for what that they make good products and are good at marketing they are just doing their job and maximizing profits. Hate the people.

R

No point in spending money on this old thing when plenty of options are available in the market today.

what this reminds me is of girls repeated making the same picture as their facebook DP so that it shows up on more people's newsfeed and get them more 'like's

Alright.. so since my posts was deleted due to TDF recovering to some old database.. lemme post it again.

Even if I don't like Apple (hate is a strong word) I could have recommended friends (who are looking to find a good phone at 15k price) an iPhone 4.

BUT, the fact that Apple is collecting all the iPhone 4 from All around the world which were not sold and sending it to India in a hope that iSheeps out there *will* buy the phones makes me feel s**t about my country. India won't be a dumping ground. I will not let it be.

Hence I resent this move by Apple.

----
Thanks Google cache: *webcache.googleusercontent.com/sea...t=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=TgTYUpcGzJSuB7qtgPAL

No country is a dumping ground for Apple or for any other company.

Let me fix the DUMPING GROUND Argument once in for all. It all boils down to pure Economics and Business.

Scarcity is what you should be looking at.

No matter how many factories in china work 24x7, you just can't keep up with the demand. The high quality production factories themselves are scarce! And them the components themselves are limited, every now and then you see in the news companies running out of displays or somesh1t like that.

So in a limited time, you can produce only limited phones.

First serve the primary markets where you profit a lot. Then sell in the secondary market when demand in the primary market starts to fall and profit more, that's all is the logic.

Apple India's revenue ? 1 billion!
Apple world wide revenue ? 170.910 billion

So if iPhones are in limited supply why the hell sell in INDIA, Steve JOBS would have been considered the dumbest CEO. But you all know he is not.

Read this article.. severe iphone 5 shortage.. means price it insanely high.. and sell older ones at cheaper price.
Apple profit shrinks to a third, sales rise 51% to Rs 3,030 crore in FY13 - Economic Times

In short, in case of limited supply sell where you profit most then sell else where.

If Apple had SUPPLY = DEMAND, they would launch on Day 1 in all countries. In this ideal case apple would have maximum profit in shortest time. But the Economics of world prohibit it.

And also when you have slightly excess surplus, sell it where there is demand. Its here in India, which means indians are better off buying the phone than not being able to afford at all. Here I say phone becuase it could be any company in its place, be it Samsung or apple.

The only sad thing is all profits are going to US company not an Indian company.

^yup. makes a lot of sense. especially the bit about why would apple sell phones in india when it can make more profits out of those phones elsewhere.

here, thew news is distributers and resellers going to apple and saying, we need more iphones to sell. not apple coming to them with unsold stocks. the unsold stock usually affects these middlemen, who are the actual "customers". an unsold inventory will be more say verizon or vodafone's problem than apple's.
distributers and resellers are offering the iphone 4 in US also, under similar schemes, and dont yet see the iPhone 4 listed in the official indian site. don't think it will be again, so will believe in this "re-launch" when it happens

read some of the indian news reports on this news. the statements by fandroids here are actually much more sensible and much less biased and wrong than these news reports. these reporters need some serious basic training.
they refer to entirety of own country as underdeveloped in an article about phones. whereas international publications talk only of the indian smartphone market, and even they are polite enough to call it emerging or at least developing.
these articles talks about some phantom desire by everyone to have iphone. lol wat is this desire thing, at least call it "premium". even if this is true, it does not actually translate to sales. people dont buy iphones for aspiration alone. if so, this anyway does not change the capacity or intent of the device. it is a workhorse, not a show pony.
sure many phones are better specced, but the specs on the 4 is not nearly "obsolete" yet, the phones were manufactured till late 2013.
comparison to mid range droids. wow. didn't expect that. it's not the same thing. you cannot play infinity blade 3, deus ex, pvzII on day of release on any other platform.

at this point not buying the iphone because its old and less specced is at least a little more hipster than just getting one

those iphones 4 still available in US? yeah some of them come with iOS4! that can be fun. so donno we will get with 4 or 6 or 7. either way guess they all will only be upgradeable to 7.

My friend is going to buy this...and he is very happy that its price has come down...he says it looks good then almost all handsets in that range...it works much smoothly then even 1GB+android 4.2.2 and it is pocketable, and lastly it have that wow effect of apple which others dont have

M

sujoyp said:
My friend is going to buy this...and he is very happy that its price has come down...he says it looks good then almost all handsets in that range...it works much smoothly then even 1GB+android 4.2.2 and it is pocketable, and lastly it have that wow effect of apple which others dont have

At 15000 (without any buyback) iphone 4 is very good mobile for most people . Better than Samsung grand ,duos etc and chinese mobiles and clones . Good quality ,durbale ,style it has everything . Its camera is better than most mid range android .

My relatives wanted to buy a mobile in 15k-20k range and they bought grand/core and duos as they trust only samsung (no chinese or sony etc) . For them iphone 4 will be better. Most indians are brand conscious and they will choose iphone 4 over Moto x .

yup for them apple is APPLE and moto is a US based company sold to google

sujoyp said:
yup for them apple is APPLE and moto is a US based company sold to google

very true

like someone said in June 2003 - how can i pay this much on Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer for a mobile connection? what if the company runs away with my money?

Oh look!! A dead horse!! Let's take a stick and start beating it....

And just when you thought this was a dead horse and flogging wouldn't help Apple is going to price this mobile at 23200 Rs unlike 15K the general consensus we had arrived at.

freshseasons said:
And just when you thought this was a dead horse and flogging wouldn't help Apple is going to price this mobile at 23200 Rs unlike 15K the general consensus we had arrived at.

well i guess they figured out people will still buy them

This meanwhile...Samsung launches Galaxy Grand 2 at 23K.

Frankly i don't see people buying the iphone 4 around 23K. 15K was a sweet spot and most would have taken the dive but around 23K its too pricy .

Even devout Apple fan like me would want to keep myself miles from this...decision.

I think Apple took a wrong turn in pricing there...Would have found a new market for Apple store and mobile with 15K priced mobile.

At 23K this is all together different ball game..

^^ Your post sound like iPhone 4 is 23k. Isn't it 15k?

Am I missing something?

M

It's gonna be 23k it seems. Lol what's the big deal? Flipkart is already selling it at 22.7k.

freshseasons said:
This meanwhile...Samsung launches Galaxy Grand 2 at 23K.

Frankly i don't see people buying the iphone 4 around 23K. 15K was a sweet spot and most would have taken the dive but around 23K its too pricy .

Even devout Apple fan like me would want to keep myself miles from this...decision.

I think Apple took a wrong turn in pricing there...Would have found a new market for Apple store and mobile with 15K priced mobile.

At 23K this is all together different ball game..

23k

source?

Galaxy grand 2 :facepalm:

Vyom said:
^^ Your post sound like iPhone 4 is 23k. Isn't it 15k?

Am I missing something?

Yes Vyom its being launched around 23 K.

ankush28 said:
23k
source?

Galaxy grand 2

Source: Apple is reportedly relaunching the iPhone 4 in India for Rs 22,900 - Mobiletor.com
Source: Reports say Apple will sell 8GB iPhone 4 in India for around Rs 23,000 - Tech2

Feature to feature i meant for the last face Palm. Sometimes the hand does hit self more when the truth reveals.

dont think apple is itself involved in any of this. none of these news reports have one fragment of info directly from apple.
this is only resellers selling discontinued devices, which the were doing before or after this "relaunch" anyway.

Apple is indeed relaunching the iPhone 4 in India as reported earlier this week. However, Apple has priced the smartphone, which was launched in 2010 and discontinued a couple of months ago, at an MRP of Rs 22,900 and not Rs 15,000, BGR India has learnt from sources at Apple’s distributor partners.

Source:Apple to relaunch iPhone 4 8GB in India for Rs 22,900 | News & Video Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India

Update:

Apple’s distributors are giving a scheme to retailers where it will give 10 free iPhone 4 8GB for every 100 units they buy. This, sources say, could give more margin for retailers to lower the price of the iPhone 4 8GB to around Rs 20,000.

Apple would never dilute its brand value and one should not have expected even an old model like the iPhone 4 8GB at Rs 15,000. However, Apple could bring down the price further by giving EMI schemes like the one it has just introduced for the iPad mini today.

The EMI scheme on the iPad mini Wi-Fi 16GB in India comes with a downpayment of Rs 4,999 and 18 EMIs of Rs 1,055 each. Apple would provide a cashback at the end of 18 months that would cover the interest and taxes levied on the EMI and then some more. You can check out that offer

Source:Apple to relaunch iPhone 4 8GB in India for Rs 22,900 | News & Video Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India

Apple’s distributors are giving a scheme to retailers where it will give 10 free iPhone 4 8GB for every 100 units they buy. This, sources say, could give more margin for retailers to lower the price of the iPhone 4 8GB to around Rs 20,000

Apple to relaunch iPhone 4 8GB in India for Rs 22,900 | News & Video Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India

cites

Apple to reportedly relaunch the iPhone 4 8GB in India for Rs 15,000 | News & Video Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India

which cites

Apple to relaunch 8GB version of iPhone 4 in India as sales lag - Economic Times

which says

The US company, pressing hard to raise its market share in India, will price the device at around 15,000 through buyback and EMI schemes compared with its old retail price of Rs 26,500, Apple's four top trade partners in India said requesting anonymity due to confidentiality clauses.

which we know now to be wrong

still, not a peep from apple, only its distributers and resellers

another tale of chinese whispers

this tech 2 article
Reports say apple will sell 8GB iPhone 4 in India at Rs. 22900

cites this techcrunch article
Apple turns to old iphone models and lower prices too woo users in India

which comes back to this ET article again
Apple to relaunch 8GB version of iPhone 4 in India as sales lag - Economic Times

at the very least all contemplation of strategic steps taken by apple to "increase it's market share" or whatever reasons given for this move is all pulled out of thin air

To think right now nothing is certain until Apple actually officially launches it. But right now we can be bit sure that the chances of it being launched around 23K are equally as strong as 15K .

I and many more like me,so wish Apple launches this around 15K. Great option as a second phone at this price point.

You need a non nonsense, closed , absolutely always working mobile phone like all times as your second fall back phone...nothing beats apple at 15K.

K

Best alternative will be Gionee Elife E6 @ 20k.
IMHO way better than Grand & Xperia series!

in us it is selling for equivalent of Rs. 19000s but original refurbed pieces are available in less than 15k and maybe second hand phone is an option at less than 10k

Indians are supposed to pay more comparatively.

Its almost getting certain with each passing day and hour the price is almost around 22,900 Rs.

I so wish iphone should have not discontinued with iphone 5 and should have re priced it at 28000 /-

That would have been sweet deal.

Apple has launched the iPhone 4 at Rs 22,900 in India

RohanM said:
Apple has launched the iPhone 4 at Rs 22,900 in India

Apple is drunk

Only hardcore fans or noobs will find anything cool about ip4.

lies. give me one link to something apple has done to qualify or justify this "news" as a re-launch.
proof : Apple (India) - iPhone - Compare Models
src for *www.gsmarena.com/apple_launches_outdated_iphone_4_in_india-news-7620.php is this, which has nothing from apple or it's representatives, or actually even resellers or distributors. at this point the news is literally rumors
iPhone 4 Relaunched At Rs 22,900 | Mobile | www.indiatimes.com

Since last week, rumours of Apple relaunching the iPhone 4 at a 'budget' price began doing rounds in India. While rumours pegged the iPhone 4 to be priced at Rs 15,000 it came as more than a surprise to many - as Apple is not known to be a benevolent company when it comes to pricing their smartphones. And clearly, the rumours were all wrong. The price of the re-launched iPhone 4 is Rs 23,000. Not just over-pricing a device but almost robbery.

so, ignoring the idiotic and populist aspersions about the motivations of the company (even if it's a money making machine, it cannot think about committing human crimes such as robbery) at this point the news is that resellers are selling discontinued devices at exorbitant prices. since these models are not officially available, any price is exorbitant.

Unless Apple officially launches the iphone we can never really put it on paper the exact price.
But we can ofcourse take it logically and speculate comparing other markets.

1) Production of iphone 4 is discontinued.

2)Apple is lying with vast amount of unsold iphone 4 inventory .

3)Besides India , Apple sells iphone 4 in China through official Apple store.

4)The price there in China for iphone 4 officially through Apple Store is 26000 Rs. Source : Apple and Apple Store without carrier tie up.

5)With this logic you can safely put it Apple will never sell the iphone 4 in India for 15K.

Infact consider yourself lucky that you will get it around 23K, still 3K cheaper than in China the official price from Apple.

^^ In that case Apple will once again have to relaunch the dumped stock to clear their inventory, 23-26k for apple 4 is insane

no need of fight or quarreling is necessary here... let "them" buy and let "them learn".

rijinpk1 said:
no need of fight or quarreling is necessary here... let "them" buy and let "them learn".

Exactly. Thread closed.