Airtel and Vodafone have announced that the iconic iPhone will be in India within months. What can customers look forward to?

The iPhone is finally on its way to India. Both Airtel and Vodafone have announced tie-ups with Apple and plan to launch the phone sometime later this year. That is where the certainty, if any, ends.
For one, no one is sure what model of Apple’s phone will be available in India. There is a cloak of secrecy around the event, and both the phone companies are keeping mum about it. “We are still months from launching the service. Besides, Apple is also involved and so we cannot give out any information on our own,” said an Airtel official. When asked if customers would have to change their SIM cards (and so their phone numbers) if they acquired iPhones, Airtel again remained silent.
This means that at this point of time, we do not know which version of the iPhone will be in India. The iPhone is currently available in 8 GB and 16 GB variants. And there is talk that Apple will launch a 3G version some time later this year. Of course, no one is sure about the specs of this model.

V.1
The versions currently available boast a stunning touchscreen user-interface, hailed as one of the “seven wonders of the modern tech world”. Watching movies and listening to music and browsing album artwork with Cover Flow using the inbuilt iPod on the 3.5-inch colour display is an experience in its self.
The iPhone runs on Apple’s OS X operating system and instead of buttons, joysticks, etc, it has icons that appear on the huge touch-sensitive screen. The address book appears when you touch the phone icon on the screen. Tap on a name and the iPhone makes the call. Touch the photos icon and your photo album glides onto the screen. The iPhone’s responsiveness and its wealth of effects makes using the phone easy and enjoyable. SmartPhones have a reputation for being slow, bug-ridden and difficult to use, but the iPhone is the absolute opposite. Other great features include the Safari web browser, Google Maps and built-in Wi-Fi support.
Where the iPhone does lose out is its 2 megapixel camera, which lacks autofocus and flash. Another omission is 3G. For a phone that places so much emphasis on music downloads and web browsing, downloads at 2G speeds is a major limitation. The Bluetooth support is also limited, with no filesharing and support for stereo Bluetooth headsets.
Also, the huge LCD display sucks power and with so many gadgets to play with, the battery runs down quickly. But heavy users should get a full day’s use between charges. Other hitches include the omission of MMS, and the fact that you can only use MP3 tracks downloaded from iTunes as ringtones.

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