Surprised to see a brand like Iphone tying up with a third grade brand like Aircel in India. Iphone is bound to lose a lot because of this blunder it committed in India. While it choose wisely in having alliance with Airtel, Vodafone or Tata Docomo could have been a better bet than Aircel.
Aircel is the brand of masses in which ever market it is leading and recently, it is found that it is a scam ridden company which bribed Mr Maran to get the license dead cheaply from its erstwhile owner. Ironically, Aircel has the habit of dumping its distributors and dealers in its newer markets where it is struggling for survival and finding it real tough to have partners to sell Start Up Kits (SUK) or new connections. One would not be surprised to find a recharge outlet miles away or limited to the bigger outlets who sell more mobile connections. With such poor network of retailers, how will it be able to sell big numbers?
Aircel, though the leader in Chennai and Rest of Tamilnadu circles (as of now, which is going to lose its sheen sooner than later) has very less ARPU and Gross revenues when compared to other operators. This is where Iphone will lose its value. Will it sell the phone to some one who uses a phone to make a missed call expecting the other side to call back? Or to some one who looks for Chinese handsets or Micromax?
Iphone will very soon realise the mistake and hopefully not repeat the mistake elsewhere... but it will be sorry for losing out on a rapidly growing Indian market. Nonetheless, Iphone as such will not lose its customers. People using other networks will buy it in the open market and still be its customers.
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