Apple iPhone 7 and Watch Series 2 - Where does India feature?

SAN FRANCISCO: Yes, we now know the official date for the iPhone India launch - 7 Oct 2016. When the Keynote slides made no mention of India at first, there was obvious disappointment though that was soon put to rest by the official press release mentioning the date.

The timing couldn't be better for Apple - Samsung, their biggest competitor, just announced a global recall of their latest flagship Galaxy Note 7. According to an official statement from Samsung, about 35 units of their device globally have been affected by faulty batteries. This means a delay of several weeks, maybe more, till all units are recalled and new ones shipped out. It's safe to assume that many who bought Note 7s might now decide to switch allegiance.

The Apple Watch Series 2 is getting some major improvements too, though they're not as obvious as the iPhone. Since the Watch itself is such a new product, keeping design roughly the same is a good idea because early adopters won't feel cheated. Yet there is enough reason to upgrade: a brighter display, built in GPS for more effective outdoor workouts, 50m water resistance and the more powerful processor.

It also gives Apple (and their resellers) loads of time to plan their big promotions before the Indian buying season (read: Diwali) kicks in. The shortening gap between the first wave of launches and an India launch demonstrates the growing importance of the Indian market for Apple. To be clear, people in the US, UK & China first get their hands on the iPhone 7 on 16 September and in India, we can buy it just three weeks later. When the launch in India was months after the US launch, it encouraged the grey market - sellers who sold imported devices at high premiums. Those grey market sellers in Ghaffar Market, Khan Market, Heera Panna and Lamington Road won't get a chance to fleece die-hard iPhone loyalists this time.

Exact prices for all variants have not been announced yet - just that the iPhone 7 range will start from Rs 60,000. This obviously means that the 32GB version of the iPhone 7 will start at this price - the iPhone 7 Plus 32GB version will likely be around Rs 10,000 more, going by current price differences between the 6S and 6S Plus. And you can further extrapolate the prices for the 128 and 256GB variants, taking into account the current price difference between between 16, 64 and 128GB variants of the iPhone 6S. The key takeaway is that prices have been kept constant while adding more features, improving performance and doubling the storage capacity.