NEW DELHI: Apple's iconic game-setter tablet computer, iPad has been finally launched in India, almost nine months after it made its debut across several countries.
The company launched the iPad Thursday in six variants, the cheapest being priced at an MRP of Rs 27,900 and the topmost model costing Rs 44,900. There are three variants that run on Wi-Fi and three that support 3G along with Wi-Fi.
The cheapest 3G variant – 16 GB – has been priced at Rs 34,900. The 32 GB and 64 GB models have been priced at Rs 39,900 and Rs 44,900 respectively.
Among Wi-Fi only models, the16 GB model is priced at Rs 27,900 making it the cheapest iPad. The same model costs approximately Rs 23,000 in the US.
The 32 GB and 64 GB models have been priced at Rs 32,900 and Rs 37,900 respectively.
The cheapest 3G variant – 16 GB – has been priced at Rs 34,900. The 32 GB and 64 GB models have been priced at Rs 39,900 and Rs 44,900 respectively.
Apple iPad has a 9.7-inch display with a 1024 x 768 resolution.
Apple will make the iPad available through its own retail channels in addition to its deal with BSNL. The state-owned telecom operator BSNL on Thursday announced attractive data plans for 3G iPad, becoming the first provider to do so.
BSNL is offering both prepaid and postpaid plans. Unlimited usage costs Rs 999 per month in both prepaid and postpaid. There is a limited usage plan at Rs 599 per month with free 6GB of usage. In prepaid, there is also a daily unlimited plan at Rs 99 with one day validity. Both pre-paid and post-paid plans have activation charges of Rs 100.
However, Apple does not plan to announce similar deals with other operators in immediate future. Of the two largest private operators, Airtel has launched 3G operations in just two cities in past three days, whereas Vodafone is yet to launch 3G.
Other telcos are expected to offer the iPad with attractive offers of bundled airtime only after they roll out 3G services across the circles they have won a license for.
Interestingly, Samsung which launched its tablet Galaxy Tab last month slashed its prices last week in order to make its product compete better and provide a viable alternative to Apple iPad, ahead of the impending launch in India.
Available in one model, the 7-inch screen sized Galaxy, running on Android 2.2 Froyo operating system (OS), was introduced at Rs 37,999 bundled with a cover and Bluetooth headset. Last week, the company announced it was selling the same model at Rs 30,999 sans any goodies.
Since iPad was first launched in April 2010, there have been a number of tablets either announced or launched by rival companies. The prominent among them are Samsung Galaxy and Dell Streak, while Research In Motion's Playbook is expected to make its global debut in March.
Dell Streak too has just one model, the 5-inch Streak, which retails at Rs 34,990, and has just 2 GB internal memory albeit expandable up to 32 GB. It was launched in October with Android 1.6 and later upgraded to Android 2.2 Froyo.
Apple is launching iPad so late in India that many people believe that a large number of those who could afford one have already got it from the gray market. Also, the company is widely believed to be lining up iPad 2 in the coming weeks and many feel that Apple may have delayed its India launch a little too late.
The company officials, however, claim Apple has not been able to meet the demand in its key markets, which was beyond its own expectations.
Globally, Apple recorded strong sales of iPad during its just concluded first quarter. The company sold 7.33 million iPads during the period. Research firm IDC reported that iPad sales represented nearly 90 per cent of the tablets that shipped worldwide during the third quarter of 2010, and forecast overall shipments to reach 70.7 million units by 2012.
In another study, the research firm Canalys said that Apple had emerged as the world's third-largest PC vendor during the fourth quarter in 2010 if iPad shipments were included.
With iPads included, Apple's worldwide PC shipments grew 241 percent, Canalys said. This puts the company in third place behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Apple held a 10.8 percent PC market share with 11.5 million PC units shipped and was neck to neck with Dell, which also held a 10.8 per cent market share with 11.4 million units shipped.
Companies like LG and Motorola also plan to launch their tablet devices in 2011. Other than the prominent brands, an unknown player like Notion Ink, a Hyderabad-based company had unveiled an Android-based tablet — Adam – which was dubbed an 'iPad killer', but the tablet is yet to see the light of the day despite claims of 'heavy bookings'.