iPhone 4S bookings open @ Rs 50,900!

The latest version of Apple's iPhone 4S is now open for pre-bookings in India, at a price which is more than that in other countries.

The 32 gigabyte (GB) version of iPhone 4S will cost Rs 50,900, while the 16 GB version will cost Rs 44,500.

Both Bharti Airtel and Aircel, who had earlier launched iPhone 4, would launch the phone on November 25.

The delivery of these would start from November 24 midnight, they said.

iPhone's latest version topped four million in sales, during its first weekend launch, in the US. This, however, may not be the case in India according to experts, due to the high price.

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They said the price of the handset is around Rs 6,000-Rs 7,000 higher.

"The price gap between the price of Apple products in the United States and in India has been consistently growing. The gap was lesser for iPhone 4G and iPhone 3GS," said Alok Shende, principal analyst and co-founder, Ascentius Consulting.

The prohibitively high price in India could sell higher in the grey market.

"Apple products always sell a lot more in the grey market. They give it at a much cheaper price because they do not pass through customs, etc. If there are any sales, it could happen there," said a sector analyst who refused to be quoted.

iPhone 4S is regarded by many Apple fans, as only a slight improvement of its earlier much popular handset iPhone 4.

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It comes with a faster microprocessor, and a much better camera at eight megapixel, as compared to the 5 megapixel camera of iPhone 4.

"There is not much difference between both the phones. The screen resolution is very good with my phone itself," said Sourabh Chakraborthy, an Apple fan who bought iPhone 4, six months ago.

About the phone

The iPhone 4S is packed with a variety of new features, including Apple's dual-core A5 chip for fast performance and vivid graphics, an all-new camera with advanced optics, full 1080p HD resolution video recording and and Siri, an assistant that helps get things done just by asking.

Siri understands context allowing the user to speak naturally when one asks questions.

For example, if one asks 'will I need an umbrella this weekend?', it understands one is looking for weather forecast.

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Siri is also smart about using the personal information one allows it to access, for example, if one tells Siri 'remind me to call Mom when I get home' it can find 'mom' in the address book.

Siri helps the user make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more.

With iPhone 4S, also came the iOS 5, an advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features and iCloud, a set of free cloud services that work with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store content in iCloud and push it to all other devices.

iPhone 4S is equipped with Notification Center to easily view and manage notifications in one place without interruption and iMessage, a new messaging service that can send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS 5 users.

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iPhone 4S has the same thin glass and stainless steel design, while being completely remodelled on the inside.

Apple's dual-core A5 chip delivers up to twice the processing power and up to seven times faster graphics than iPhone 4, all while maintaining incredible battery life -- now up to 8 hours of 3G talk time.

Improving on the innovative stainless steel external, dual-antenna design of iPhone 4, iPhone 4S is the first phone to switch between two antennas to send and receive.

iPhone 4S now supports twice the download speed with HSDPA of up to 14.4 Mbps and iPhone 4S is a world phone, so both CDMA and GSM customers can now roam internationally on GSM networks.