Although some of you may think iPhones are as old as Adam and Eve, these modern era communication and computing devices have been with us for only about seven years.

But much has happened (a lot of it in the U.S.) in those seven plus years – Apple sold nearly 600 million iPhones, reaped tens of billions of dollars in profits, became one of the most admired companies, its phenomenal success contributed to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer being thrown out and buried Steve Jobs.

In the same period, I’ve watched hundreds line up for the latest iPhones outside Apple and AT&T stores, witnessed 14 and 15-year-old McDonald’s workers toying with their latest model iPhones, listened to 65-year-old fogies boast about gifting iPhones to their girlfriends and gone through three iPhones myself.

Oh yeah, I’ve seen Chinese people alighting from tour buses in droves at the nearby mall to buy tax-free iPhones to send them to eager buyers in China.

But while the rest of the world is going gaga over iPhone 5, 5S and the large screen 6 and 6 Plus, Indians have resolutely raised their collective middle finger to the iPhone.

That must be extremely distressing to Apple since India is still largely a feature phone market. At the end of the third quarter, smartphones accounted for 32% of the Indian mobile phone segment with feature phones taking the rest.

Indians Say No

Apple just can’t get those thrifty Indians to open their wallets to the pricey iPhones. Continue reading »