Apple's iPhone 5s
Sumit Chopra who oversees the affluent Punjab region in northern India for a distributor of Apple’s iPhone is a celebrity of sorts these days. He is on the speed dial of politicians, singers, movie stars and rich businessmen who are all calling him with one question: when can we lay our hands on the gold-colored iPhone? “An assistant of the Punjab chief minister called me and asked for five gold-colored iPhones saying it is for the chief minister, his wife and some other members of the family,” said Chopra.
There is no word yet from Apple on the official launch date or availability of the latest iPhone series in India, where typically, launches are several weeks behind the United States. But the demand is so huge that Chopra has already ordered a ‘good quantity’ of the gold phones. Retailers in the region are already pre-booking orders with him and Chopra says for every 1,000 orders of the new iPhone series, the demand for the gold-colored phones is as much as 750.
It is India’s gold mania that is translating into the ferocious demand for the iPhone 5s. In a country where gold bling sells not just in the form of jewelry but clothing, home furnishings and even hair tints, gold-crazy Indians are lining up for the phones. Elsewhere in Asia, notably China, the demand for the gold-hued iPhones is peaking while the cheaper, plastic-encased 5c in five bright colors have fewer takers.
Could the gold-toned iPhone turn out to be a masterstroke for Apple in the Indian market where it trails behind South Korean rival, Samsung, and several homegrown smartphone makers in sales?
India is the world’s leading consumer of gold after China. According to the World Gold Council, demand for gold jewelry was up 51% in the third quarter of 2013 and demand for gold bars and coins surged 157% compared with the same quarter a year ago. India is the world’s biggest importer of gold, 863 tons in 2012, and gold is the country’s second-largest import expense after oil. Recently, the government has been trying to curb Indians’ gold craze by hiking duties and so on as the country’s current account deficit grows steadily.
However, there is no curbing the greed for gold-colored phones. The phones have already hit India’s gray market. Demand is so high that an unlocked,16 GB $199-phone sold for 150,000 rupees (about $2,500) in the Punjab small town of Batal earlier this week.
Demand is already outstripping expected supply in the rest of the country too. In the southern city of Mysore, near Bangalore, store manager Tufail Ahmed at the iPlanet store which is located in the city’s biggest mall, is seeing a stream of walk-in customers inquiring about the gold-colored phones. “There is huge excitement in the market as no other smartphone device of any brand is available in that color,” said Ahmed, adding, “It is frenzy”. In another southern city, Madurai, Suresh Babu who owns Pearl Computer said the craze is so fevered that he is barely able to cope with questions about the gold-toned phone’s pricing and availability.
via apple - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEIpA-PYPJGqhNmN8GyltaHnWZ_-w&url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2013/09/25/indias-gold-fetish-translates-into-frenzied-build-up-for-apples-gold-colored-iphone/
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