Buy iPhone 3GS on Airtel in India Starting Rs 35,500

Now you can buy iPhone 3GS in India locked to Airtel, India’s leading telecom service provider starting March 26, 2010; but its not cheap with iPhone 3GS plans starting at Rs. 35,500 onwards.

Apple released iPhone 3GS last year which claims to be twice as fast as iPhone 3G, with longer battery life, 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy video recording and hands free voice control. Compare iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

iPhone 3GS includes over 100 most requested features like Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard etc. iPhone 3G S uses OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for high-quality 3D graphics, while supporting 7.2 Mbps HSDPA for faster networking speeds.

Airtel has announced that iPhone 3GS plans in India locked to Airtel network will cost Rs. 35,500 for 16GB model and Rs. 41,500 for 32GB iPhone 3GS model (nearly $900!) In addition all Airtel iPhone 3GS customers will enjoy 500 MB of free data every month for a year from the date of their iPhone 3GS activation. The prices may vary in some States due to differential VAT. If the iPhone 3GS plans seem too expensive, buy iPhone 3G 8GB model for Rs. 29,500. Note that iPhone3GS on Airtel is locked to Airtel and will work only with activated Airtel sim card.

As Blackberry and Nokia smartphones continue to get cheaper in India to tap one of the largest mobile markets in the world; Apple continues the expensive price and service plans, which keeps the iPhone beyond the reach of millions of Indians. With 3G services starting soon in India, 3G phones will become popular as data transfer gets faster.

If you were waiting to buy iPhone 3GS in India, sadly it just became more unaffordable.