Apple Inc spawns a new breed of Midnight’s Children
No, the Apple fanboi is not a species exclusive to the western world. They were spotted in large numbers in many cities across India around midnight of October 17, when Apple launched its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in India.
Hours before the clock struck 12, scores of them lined up outside retail outlets across the capital as well as in the other metros on
Friday to get their hands on the newly launched Apple smartphones.
At the iZenica store in South Delhi, bean bags, free refreshments and magic shows had been set up as prospective buyers waited for the deadline to end. Apple partner Ingram Micro had announced earlier that it would offer the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at leading modern trade stores and retail outlets across India beginning midnight on October 17. Several other stores also opted to start the iPhone 6 sales from midnight of the launch day.
The midnight sales, which came to India for the first time, attracted good crowds in some stores. Apple resellers in India are not used to seeing long lines in front of their stores, which is otherwise pretty common in other countries like US, Germany and Singapore. Many buyers had even pre-booked their new iPhone paying the full amount in advance on October 7.
Infibeam.com, the only internet reseller in India that is authorised by Apple to sell iPhones online, also delivered several iPhone 6 orders at midnight across major cities in India to customer who had pre-booked the new iPhones on its website.
The Apple iPhone 6 16 GB model is priced at R53,500, the 64 GB one at R62,500 and 128 GB at R71,500. The Apple iPhone 6 Plus 16 GB comes for R62,500, 64 GB costs R71,500 and 128 GB sets you back R80,500. All the devices are available in silver, gold and space grey colour options.
Anuj Jain, a 25-year-old IT professional, was one of the first buyers of the iPhone 6 in the capital. He sold his Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to buy the iPhone 6 64 GB. “This is my first iPhone. Previously, I owned the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2. I am not too happy with the quality of Samsung devices. I read a lot about the new iPhones and decided to buy it,” he said.
It appears people are more inclined towards buying the iPhone 6 than the iPhone 6 Plus.
people are not very keen on buying it.
“The new iPhone 6 is completely unique. So when it comes to buying an iPhone now, the iPhone 6 is clearly a better deal,” said another buyer.
The iPhone will compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z3 and BlackBerry Passport priced at Rs 58,300, Rs 51,990 and Rs 49,990, respectively.
