Use iPhone from India or just anywhere

Update on 15th July 09: This is a very very old post and I notice that many of you are reading this because you want to use your iPhone in India. You will probably be dissatisfied after reading the rest of post as it does not talk much about iPhone, but about an interesting remote device testing/experience service called DeviceAnywhere. So to make your visit worthwhile I am updating this post so that you probably get what you were actually looking for.

To answer your questions about using your iPhone in India - Yes you can ofcourse use your iPhone in India by following ways:

1. You can roam on Indian service providers' network. Roaming charges apply.
2. If you have an unlocked iPhone, you can just buy and use any Indian SIM card and pay local call charges.
3. If you have a locked iPhone you can get it unlocked by most mobile shops in India, it takes just 10 mins and does not mean opening your iPhone or tampering with hardware in any way.
4. If you are technically inclined you can even unlock the iphone yourself. Just check out - iPhone Dev Team, Installer and Cydia.
5. I have also read that Airtel is now also selling unlocked iPhones and even unlocking the already sold iPhones for free.

------------------- End of Update, Older post follows --------------------

Well its true you can really press keys of an iPhone with a live network sitting anywhere in the world. Ofcourse you won't be really able to touch the iPhone but you will be able to do anything with the phone, except probably throwing it away ;-)

This is made possible by using subscription based services from DeviceAnywhere, which allows you to remotely access real handsets over the internet.

They support all types of handsets on multiple networks and are basically targeting mobile developers who would like to test their applications on variety of handsets without owning each one of them.

However in my opinion potential mobile handset buyers can also use the service to get a feel of the handset and test the UI before actually going and buying it.

And since iPhone has been such a craze all over the world, I am sure enthusiasts from countries where it has not been launched yet would be interested in accessing it remotely and they can do it by paying a monthly fee of $200 and $18 for per hour of usage. But hey here is the good news, they give away 3 hours for free to anybody who signs up and I think its enough time to try out a new phone or even an iPhone so I think you guys should just go ahead and give it a try :-)

Update on 7th Many 08: Vodafone bringing iPhone to India in September 2008

Reliance going to sell iPhones in India

As if selling everything from vegetables to petrol was not enough for this corporate giant, Reliance has now bagged marketing and distribution deal from Apple. Company will be opening Apple iStores branded Reliance Digital in various Indian cities and first 10 of them will be opened by year end itself. So whether you want to buy iMac or iPod you will need to buy it from a Reliance store. Also all you iPhone lovers get ready to queue outside a Reliance Digital store near you.

I think Apple is seriously making efforts to go mainstream now and look beyond their niche market. Partnering with Reliance definitely gives them advantage of scale and this may be a crucial factor in iPhone's success in India.

Update on 7th Many 08: Vodafone bringing iPhone to India in September 2008

Google Search using SMS

Just read on Alootechie about the launch of Google SMS in India. You can now search by simply sending an sms to 54664 (5GOOG) from your mobile. It will cost you upto Rs. 3 for each sms you send, however BSNL postpaid subscribers pay just 80 Paise for sending sms.

Some example of queries include: pizza andheri west mumbai, movies hyderabad, translate hello in french, weather Delhi etc. You can perform 9 types of searches/queries using Google SMS which makes it very very useful in my opinion. Currently this service is available only in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

As an Google admirer I welcome Google SMS in India and await their rollout in more cities and with more service providers. Incidently google is also experimenting with mobile advertising and it will be interesting when google starts inserting ads in SMS and shares revenue with service providers and mobile users can use the service for free, I mean they don’t even pay for sending the message. That will surely be a google way to do the things. I am keeping my fingers crossed till then.