As the world buys iPad2, iPad 1 debuts in India!
Kanti, a Delhi University student, turned an iPad tablet computer round in her hands at an electronics store in the city. It is Apple's latest must-have item - yet it is already out of date.
"No, I'll wait for the iPad 2," she said, putting it back on the shelf, aware that the improved version has already gone on sale in the United States. "Perhaps my aunt in USA will be able to send me one soon," she said.
India looks like a massive emerging market for Apple's iPads, iPods and iPhones, with an increasingly wealthy, young population hungry for information, entertainment and the latest craze in consumer culture.
But the original iPad finally arrived in India a full nine months after it was available in the United States - and the iPad 2 has no scheduled release date in the country of 1.18 billion people.
The iPad 2 hit the shops in the US on March 11 having been unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, and it will be released in dozens of other countries - including Britain and Australia - on March 25.
Popular tech blogger Soumyadip Choudhury targeted Jobs, accusing him of using India as a dumping ground for out-of-date Apple technology.
The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter and faster - but, with no release scheduled in India, the country's vast ranks of Apple fans have been left to buy the old model, priced between about $540 and $920, or else import the new one.
An Apple spokesman who asked not to be named said that the company did not disclose sales figures for India or discuss future release dates for products. He also declined to comment on criticism of Apple's strategy in India.
"Apple always targets the niche market and never focuses on the mass market," Gartner's principal research analyst Vishal Tripathi told AFP.
Other companies are hoping to take advantage of Apple's apparent reluctance, with Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Motorola's Xoom, both priced around $650, vying to grab India's tablet computer market.
"It is a nascent market but we see the tablet segment growing to one million this year as there are some exciting clients here," Samsung spokeswoman Ruchika Batra told AFP.
"No, I'll wait for the iPad 2," she said, putting it back on the shelf, aware that the improved version has already gone on sale in the United States. "Perhaps my aunt in USA will be able to send me one soon," she said.
India looks like a massive emerging market for Apple's iPads, iPods and iPhones, with an increasingly wealthy, young population hungry for information, entertainment and the latest craze in consumer culture.
But the original iPad finally arrived in India a full nine months after it was available in the United States - and the iPad 2 has no scheduled release date in the country of 1.18 billion people.
The iPad 2 hit the shops in the US on March 11 having been unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, and it will be released in dozens of other countries - including Britain and Australia - on March 25.
Popular tech blogger Soumyadip Choudhury targeted Jobs, accusing him of using India as a dumping ground for out-of-date Apple technology.
The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter and faster - but, with no release scheduled in India, the country's vast ranks of Apple fans have been left to buy the old model, priced between about $540 and $920, or else import the new one.
An Apple spokesman who asked not to be named said that the company did not disclose sales figures for India or discuss future release dates for products. He also declined to comment on criticism of Apple's strategy in India.
"Apple always targets the niche market and never focuses on the mass market," Gartner's principal research analyst Vishal Tripathi told AFP.
Other companies are hoping to take advantage of Apple's apparent reluctance, with Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Motorola's Xoom, both priced around $650, vying to grab India's tablet computer market.
"It is a nascent market but we see the tablet segment growing to one million this year as there are some exciting clients here," Samsung spokeswoman Ruchika Batra told AFP.
