iPhone 4 is here. But should you really care?

Apple continues to be elusive with its charm. When the west is getting ready for an iPhone 5, Apple is enticing India with a iPhone4. Like all things Apple, it starts with rumors, rumors and then more rumors. Fresh from the oven right now is, iPhone 4 unlocked version will come to India, Aircel and Airtel will be carrying them. The prices as usual will touch the roof. 16GB version will be Rs. 37500  and 32 GB will Rs. 40000.

Getting excited about iPad 2 is something different because, it is a tablet and Apple has launched it very quickly in India.

iPhone 4 is a better phone than 3G S. Does that mean we should really rush and get one of these? These smartphones are designed for huge data consumption. They also make an assumption of good network availability. That assumption, unfortunately, is not true in India.

If iPhone 4 promises 4G speeds, we can still pass it off, as India is yet to get ready for 3G speeds. There is a huge outcry over the sluggish 3G connectivity, patchy coverage and really low speeds. While the promised speeds are in MBps, the received speeds are in kbps. 600 kbps is the max speed anyone has received. 9 million users are already hooked up to 3G. And I am sure there are few million ghost connections in there and there are people who are just getting back to 2G. A more powerful phone might not be an answer to these problems.

Until, the operators fix what they call ‘teething problems’, all these iPhone 4’s will be useless.