The iPhone 4S, which goes on sale in the US and a handful of other countries on Friday, is scheduled to be launched in India before the end of this year, credible sources told BGR India. These are the same sources who had informed us about the reverse subsidy model and that the iPhone 4 will be sold factory unlocked weeks before the official announcement from Apple and the two carriers – Aircel and Airtel. Currently, we are looking at a November launch, which might get delayed to December, depending on demand from countries where the iPhone 4S will be available before India. However, they are confident the launch will happen in 2011 itself. Read on for the juicy bits.Both Airtel and Aircel will launch the iPhone 4S, though there is a third carrier in the fray to get the iPhone. (We are not talking about Vodafone!) Both the existing carriers are prepared to launch the iPhone 4S, despite the fact that they launched the iPhone 4 only towards the end of May. Sales of the iPhone 4 slowed down once rumors of the iPhone 4S (or then the iPhone 5) caught wind but they were aware this was meant to happen.
“We are not worried about the inventory as Apple itself stops sending inventory once it is ready to launch an updated version. We are ready to launch the iPhone 4S as soon as we get hold of it,” one of the sources told us. Anyway, from what we are told, there isn’t any significant iPhone 4 inventory left anyway.
We are hearing multiple figures when it comes to the number of units of iPhone 4 shipped but we can confidently confirm the number to be easily over 100,000 with Airtel getting 30 percent more stock than Aircel.
Now that the iPhone 4S launch is happening within two months of its global launch, the carriers are hoping for an even better response. Add to this the iPhone 4 8GB, which should sell at under Rs 30,000 and the iPhone 3GS 8GB, we cannot blame them for getting excited.
The confidence of our sources for a 2011 iPhone 4S launch points out Apple’s preparedness for a global launch, unlike the first generation iPad last year, where it had to postpone the European launch to meet demand in the US. Also, considering the fact that this is the first iPhone launch so close to the Holiday season in most of the world, it is a pretty gutsy move to go for a rapid-fire launch than the staggered launch approach Apple usually takes. The iPhone 4S is already turning out to be Apple’s most popular iPhone ever with pre-orders crossing a million units in the first day itself. If this does not make Apple’s competitors rethink their strategy, we do not know what will.