IPhone India rollout to be world's largest

Source: Yahoo News

The rollout of Apple, Inc's iPhones in India is set to be the largest, anywhere in the world. It is understood from industry sources that Apple's iPhones will be sold through about 2.

5 lakh Vodafone and Airtel retail outlets including franchisee owned shops. This rollout would be mammoth when compared to iPhones being available only in about 7000 AT and amp;T outlets in the US apart from the Apple Stores.

"Most phone makers want their products in as many stores as possible and Apple is changing its strategy from exclusivity to wider availability," said an analyst from a brokerage house who did not wish to be named. Airtel announced yesterday that they would be selling iPhones in India.

Earlier Vodafone inked a deal last week to rollout iPhones in 10 countries including India. Additionally, Apple will be selling iPhones through its own outlets, which are very few in number.

Industry observers say that the distribution network would cover all metros and leading tier II towns. When contacted Airtel spokespeople said that they are working on the distribution strategy and cannot comment on that at present.

Vodafone officials did not respond to emails seeking details of the roll-out. However, people involved with the distribution indicated that the iPhone, priced at Rs 23000 will be targetted at 'high-end' mobile phone users whose monthly bills exceed of Rs 1000.

They said agreements with franchisees would also be worked out. It is another first in India - franchisees do not sell iPhones in USA.

Bharti is working out plans on bundling iPhones along with its broadband through its Telemedia services department that currently has 794,000 broadband customers as on March this year. India currently has 37 million Internet users, according to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

ITunes video, Apple TV 'dead ends,' claims researcher

Apple Inc.'s for-pay video download business on iTunes and its Apple TV set-top box are "dead ends," a researcher said today, because television and cable networks will quickly shift their creative products to free ad-supported streaming.

"The paid video download market in its current evolutionary state will go the way of the dodo," argued James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

While TV and cable move to ad-backed media streaming "where they have control of ads and effective audience measurement," movie studios will throw their weight behind subscription models similar to Netflix Inc.'s mail-delivered DVD rental business, McQuivey said.

He made the prediction even as Forrester estimated that revenues from video downloads at iTunes, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Web site and other online outlets will nearly triple this year, from $98 million last year to $279 million. But because only a fraction of online consumers -- just 9% by Forrester's reckoning -- have paid to download a television program or movie, the market is driven by "media junkies" and not mainstream users.

"The people currently downloading are very unique," said McQuivey, citing statistics that claim today's downloaders watch three times more video clips than the average online American. "That need to feed a video habit isn't as strong for everyone else," he said.

Apple's strategy is unsound, said McQuivey, because its eight-week-old Apple TV has been made obsolete almost as soon as it made market. "A year and a half or two years ago, when Apple had to start development [of Apple TV], I bet they thought they would have two or three years to build this market slowly, just as they did with the iPod. What they didn't count on, what no one did, was the mass shift to broadcast-quality streaming. ABC's doing it now, and there are rumors that NBC will follow," he said.

Paying for video downloads and "renting" movies by downloading to a computer will turn out to be a short-term, transition-style business, McQuivey said. "The pay download market will stay around, but it will not continue to grow like it did this year," according to McQuivey.

To adjust to the new reality, Apple must rethink Apple TV, he said, and turn Version 2.0 into a broadband service provider, most likely of second-tier video sources. "Only with ad-supported content will Apple be able to compete with the power of free television and TV-quality Web streams in attracting the second million buyers," said McQuivey. "Beyond the faithful who want the Steve Jobs experience, Apple's closed system will have little appeal."

McQuivey suggested one route Apple might take: turning Apple TV into a set-top box that also offers back-catalog programming for a fee. "It could stream current shows, and then say, 'Would you like to order back episodes?'" said McQuivey.

Apple officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Source