Apple digs its own grave: The iPhone3G in India

I have been watching eagerly for the Apple iPhone3G in India. I was one of the millions who pre-booked on both Vodaphone and Airtel websites. I was disgusted to receive a mail on 20 Aug 08 from both Airtel and Vodaphone exhorting me to deposit Rs 5000 and Rs 10000 respectively to get my hands on the "iPhone that Ive been waiting for". The email also innocently mentioned that the iPhones are priced at Rs 31000 ($715) and Rs 36000 ($830) for the 8GB and 16GB models!!!
Now what kind of fools do they think we are? The questions that first occured to me were:-

Would I buy a phone that:

a) costs Rs 31000 and upwards

b) does not let you use Bluetooth for anything but headset

c) does not have any memory expansion slot

d) does not let you change the Battery

e) does not let you sync if you are on a Linux desktop?

f) Has 3G capability but wont be useful for about 2 years since there are no 3G networks in India.

g) Is network-locked to Airtel or Vodaphone

My response was a overwhelming NO to all of the above.

Why couldnt the so-called business brains at Vodaphone and Airtel use their brains for once? Every Marketing/Strategy person worth his salt knows that India is a volume-based market. Did Airtel not want to convert even .01% of their 60mn plus users?

Even more hilarious was the statement by a Vodaphone chappie who says that prices are expected to fall in the coming months!! Well Mr Vodaphone, who would then buy now?

Apple could have done well with retailing the phone through Reliance because, whatever said and done (mama-he-pinched-me style of corporate governance notwithstanding) , these guys have mastered the art of commoditising everything in India.

So I would never think of giving up my HTC-Touch/Nokia E71/Blackberry/Your-favorite-Phone for the iPhone unless it sells at 10-12k.

my experiments with meraki

I had heard a lot about Meraki and how they were trying to change the way people build and use mesh networks. I called up meraki sales to find out more. surprisingly, the person on the phone wasn't very forthcoming with any answers. when I asked him whether anyone from india had bought the nodes, he said that they'd sold quite a few in the country. and then when I asked him to give me some references so I could go talk to these people and also see the meraki nodes in action, he tells me that information is confidential! the whole attitude was a take it or leave it.
however, being inquisitive, I just went ahead and placed an order for 3 outdoor nodes (standard) for $99 apiece which cost me Rs 6500 after customs and frieght.
the meraki's came in their own green boxes with a PoE injector and 2dbi antenna. assembly was quick and painless and we could register them on the dashboard.
the best part about them was the zero configuration required and auto config in gateway or repeater mode. we were able to see the merakis on google maps from the dashboard.
we took some readings and found that the range with the default antenna is dismal. it barely covers 50m in standard environment and around 75 m in open ground.
the captive portal is not configurable beyond the text and there is no user authentication at all!
we are now planning on trying them out with larger gain antennae.



Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

blogging using moblog

just downloaded an application called moblog created by sampath dassanayake and installed on my windows mobile phone. this app lets you create blogs offline and then post them to your blog. I tried out blogger but I believe others are supported too.

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile