When the iPhone 3G was first released, everybody balked at the price. After all, they said, it costs only $299 (about Rs 15,000) for the 16GB model and $199 (about Rs 10,000) for the 8GB in the US. How could Apple price it so high in India? Most put off buying it thinking that the price would drop. They were completely wrong.

The smart people bought it and the others went in for the clones from Nokia or HTC.

I made an elaborate study of the prices of the iPhone in various countries, along with the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), and discovered a startling fact: the iPhone costs the least in India! Not just that, you can use it to its full potential with a prepaid Airtel connection of a mere Rs 500 a month. So stop waiting for someone to get it for you from abroad.

When Apple went along with AT&T in the US and announced prices they didn’t tell the subscribers that they would have to pay a mandatory charge of a minimum of $30 (Rs 1,504) a month for unlimited data on a two-year contract. That, along with a minimum talk plan, pushes the price of the iPhone to $1,979 (Rs 99,212) over two years. If anyone tries to renege on the contract, their credit rating takes a huge hit. Credit cards are very important for Americans. They rarely deal in cash.

The study showed similar hidden costs for different countries. The accompanying chart is self-explanatory. The set may cost the lowest in Switzerland, but you are allowed only 100MB free. For any browsing or downloading after that you incur a huge cost. In addition, SMS and call charges are substantially higher.

In India, Airtel takes the full cost of the iPhone, which is Rs 36,100 for the 16GB model and Rs 31,000 for the 8GB one. But they give you a fantastic lollypop for it. You get 500MB free every month for the next 12 months (after which they are planning a Rs 199 data plan). An intensive iPhone user would be saving around Rs 1,500 a month on his bill. Vodafone, on the other hand charges Rs 34,580 for the 16GB model and Rs 29,640 for the smaller 8GB. But they make up this discount by imposing a data tariff of Rs 499 for 250MB and Rs 699 for 500MB a month.

The iPhone is a data intensive set, as are most smartphones like the BlackBerry, HTC and some Nokia models. Here is another eye-opener. The BlackBerry Bold costs around Rs 35,000. It is a good phone, but it is going to cost you over Rs 2,000 a month to run it. Consider the tariff from Airtel. Even if you take a minimum charge of Rs 249 a month you get just 500KB free. After that you are charged 50 paise per KB. Remember 1000KB make 1MB.

Here are some examples to give you an idea of how expensive data are:

• Check the weather forecast on weather.com. 25-75KB
• Check the cricket score on a WAP site. 75KB
• Check Gmail and read three messages. 60KB
• Update Facebook status. 25-50KB
• Visit CNN.com and access the headlines in the any section. 20-40KB
• Watch a movie clip. Around 2MB

You have just spent Rs 345 by consuming 2.3MB on your BlackBerry or HTC.

The iPhone, despite its initial costs, works out much cheaper on usage.

Don’t get tempted if someone tries to sell you an unlocked iPhone 3G for an attractive price. The illegal unlocking software for the iPhone 3G has just been released and it makes the phone unstable.

It is best to buy an iPhone from an Apple Premium Reseller. Calcutta’s is at Salt Lake City Centre. For other cities, check out www.apple.com/ in/buy/. The support is much better. Airtel and Vodafone do not know much about Apple products. On being asked why Visual Voicemail was not available on the iPhone, both of their call centres told me that is because it was a 3G service which has not been introduced in India. They thought Visual Voicemail was a video recording of a message! It is just a list of your contacts who have left you voice messages.

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