Last week when we told you about the iPad 2 India launch and today Apple officially started selling the same in India. While most of our friends in Indian media picked up the story and trusted our report, it seems that quite a few were skeptical. Some told us that Apple PR is not confirming it (well do you expect them to?) while interestingly some others told us that HomeShop 18 is already selling it in India. Well well, folks here is some simple but a much needed gyaan on this front.
I feel this is some very basic info that tech enthusiast should know.
There is a very active parallel market in India and being a part of the retail scene since early 2002, I have been fortunate to be close to its evolution. Most of the gadgets releasing across the world do not come to India (situation fast changing as you would know), but at the same time they are almost always priced over their international rates (customs, octroi, VAT etc). Hence the grey market as we know does 2 things:
a) Get the device to India early
b) Get them at a lesser price than the official rate (not always)
But is the grey market or parallel import as I like to call it, always illegal? No! Anyone can import a gadget from US/UK to India and pay the official custom duty. Its a completely legal product for sale in India and one can even advertise it. But does that mean an Apple or HP supports the same in India? Provide warranty on it? No!
So when HomeShop 18 sends across a press release telling that they have the iPad 2, please please check if its an official Apple India release or just a parallel import. The launch price of HomeShop 18 is over Rs 34000 which is EXPENSIVE. They are cashing on the fact that Apple hadn’t released the iPad 2 in India.
And till the time iPad 2 isn’t released in India, those iPads won’t even have a warranty / support from Apple India. Luckily (for Homeshop18) Apple did launch the iPad 2 in India, but selling the same from April 15th with this statement is deceiving “supported by Apple international warranty as they are direct imports from the US and come with a One Year of Manufacturer Warranty absolutely Free.”
An easy way to make out if a product is an official India release or a imported / parallel import is this. Check the product box and locate the MRP label. If it shows you an Indian MRP with importer details, its an official release, else its a parallel import. Simple.
Here is what the MRP label on the official Indian iPad 2 looks like:
On a separate note:
I am personally sick of sites like Infibeam, Flipkart and Letsbuy sending us pre-order notifications, launch details etc (Update: Flipkart has been mostly accurate on this, guess the name is so common that I penned it with others). Its all a publicity stunt folks! We heard of the Nexus S release from these sites way back in December 2010! It came now. Many of these online sites are just playing with us. They make a landing page for the product with no clue of its launch. List it as pre-order or launching soon and send across a press release. They get publicity, linkbacks for SEO and hey… our readers are left puzzled!
Hope the above commentary helps people understand the bit difference between official and unofficial launches. Thanks!
Nice tip to differentiate an officially imported vs grey market piece. Didn’t knew the retail sites are more of doing publicity stunt… but most importantly I have been tracking the buzz all over twitter on your news being fake… End of the day OG wins! 🙂 Congrats!!
BTW when can we see a hands on demo of iPad 2 Officially Indian piece!
Thanks for clearing the air, Mr.Editor.
Hi Annkur
Thanks for clarifying …Homeshop18 doing it the right way .
cheers
Dear Annkur
With reference to your above mentioned blog, we would like to inform that Apple will be supporting all devices with International warranty as it does for all other devices.
As you are aware International warranty comes with its own premium and thus the devices come at the price at which they do, cause they come with fully paid duty and includes the warranty.
Regards
Siddharth
Thanks Siddharth
The statement “International warranty comes with its own premium” in this case is a lie. All Apple products have an international warranty, but you can’t claim that in India if the product isn’t officially here. So iPas 2 advertised before 27th April with warranty applicable in India is wrong.
Anyone can walk into a Crome or Imagine today and pick the iPad 2 for Rs 29500 with completely international coverage (in all 38+ countries selling iPad2).
Looking for a day when companies like Apple aren’t hesitant in launching product in India, and the far “east” policy will emerge as a global one.
And yeah OG..thanks for sharing the information first..u saved lot of ma money 😉
@Siddharth what hogwash. There’s no premium for international warranty. Homeshop is cheating people. Apple has something called Apple Care. Which has to be bought separately. And homeshop is nor selling the iPads with this. It’s simply daylight robbery and cheating the customer.