I understand your frustration about getting fooled (again and again) by service providers into buying some crap (ofcourse if you cant use 3G on EDGE…I guess you won't understand this either) for $200. And on top of it we can't do anything about it in US. I sympathize and empathize with you at the same time. But look, lets do a simple math. Lets imagine you actually bought your I phone for $500 (like affluent people in India are paying), which I am sure people here in US are not paying. Now multiply this with 11,000 ..ok ok I'll make this simple. Answer is 5.5 Million Dollars. While the $20-30 phone from Nokia you have been bad mouthing, in 1 year alone Nokia sells 13million of then in Indian subcontinent…now to make math even simpler…that number of Nokia phones alone is more than the amount what apple got in dollars! Bingo!!…See what I mean here.

The question is NOT why didn't Indians buy i-phones, bigger question is why do we get fooled in US when rest of the world can see what Apple did??

We can issue vicious rebuttals about all the countries and cultures across the globe all day long no one is clean when it comes to fighting with a PIG but when it comes to making money, do your Math and you'll make money and don’t get jealous .

The way Americans like you sees India probably one of the reasons why American products failed there.

FYI, I-phone are not even sold (officially) in Malaysia. Probably our telcos would see this kind of problem would come. plus the profit sharing agreements.

I agree with some of the readers that Indian probably look more into faeture than hype..

Anyway, India have more than 1 billion citizens. What you might not realize is that there are more billionaire in india in any other countries in Asia, with 4 in the top 10.

go figure!

1. In India, an iPhone 3G cost around $600+ while in US it is $199.

2. In India, even though you get an iPhone without contract but it is a misleading coz you cannot use the iPhone on any other network other than Vodafone or Airtel. So even though, you are getting a "non-contract" iPhone but it is still "locked".

3. In India, you are paying $600+ for a 3G iPhone but the network is 2.5G (EDGE).

In US, ATT also sells a $600+ iPhone without any contract but tell me seriously how many of you guys have bought those over $199.

Bottom line, in India iPhone is a total rip off.

another thing if Apple didn't want to make money then why come to India? we were happy with our Nokias and Samsungs…which by the way make products that are way better than iPhone.

and for your information i am one of the 11000 who bought an iPhone and love it!!

Step 1. Find Relative/Friend in the US.

Step 2. Get him to buy an IPhone.

Step 3. Get him to Jail Break it.

Step 4. When he comes for a wedding/funeral he gets it along.

Step 5. Give him the 10,000 or so rupees for his trouble.

Step 6. Get a SIM from Bharti or Vodafone and plug it in.

While 20-30 dollar phones form a large part of the market, they dont have any sort of absolute majority on the market. There is a very large part of the population which routinely buys and keeps switching between phones which cost upwards of 200 dollars.

Some one commented "It’s quite pathetic that India actually expected …bla bla bla" does not realize that 1.3 billion can make or mar a company's future in just one quarter! We in US and Europe are captive of T-Mobiles, Oranges and AT&Ts of the world and we seem to have perfectly accepted this slavery of paying premium price for things we don't even know how to use.

Times have changed, with technology changing so rapidly people are more aware of whats 'good and ok' for them and they can differentiate between ok and good. I think now its time for a business overhaul for Apple like premium legacy companies which think that people will buy $500 i-phone one thanks giving and 3 months later Apple will sell them i-phone 2.0 with 3G. Come on! now can anyone at Apple tell me who can make a entire new hardware in 3 months?? Apple has a history of, well, yes sort of 'cheating with its customers'…which people have now started to oppose!

I hope Apple learns from this experience and avoids service providers in the Indian Market for their future products.

(1) Price: after promising to be $199 everywhere in the world, it did not happen.

(2)Lock-in: Why would I pay the full price when the phone is locked into the provider?

(3) Absence of 3G in India

(4) Selling only through the provider outlets: which adds to the feeling of lock-in.

I was very interested but point 2 was the deal breaker for me