The launch of Apple’s latest iPhone- iPhone 4S in India has met with tepid response compared to the hype surround its launch with stores selling the iPhone 4S being largely empty and receiving few customer queries.
While a spokesperson for Aircel, one of the two telecom providers to have launched the device in India, stated that the device has received a great response at the midnight launch at many stores around the country, the scenes at stores in Bangalore seemed to suggest otherwise. The spokesperson declined to comment when asked about the number of iPhone 4S units that Aircel has sold.
Stores selling the device in the heart of India’s IT capital were found to be near-empty with ample readily available stock of the smartphone, a far cry from the rest of the world where stocks of the iPhone 4S were running out in a matter of hours.
While city-wide or country-wide sales figures were not readily available, one of the employees at an Aircel store in central Bangalore said that the store has managed to sell a paltry 18 units in the first two days.
When compared to the pre-order sales in the USA (AT&T sold 200,000 iPhone 4S smartphones in the first 12 hours of availability calling it the most successful iPhone launch ever), it looks like that the silicon valley of India has given a thumbs down to the iPhone 4S.