As expected, the new iPods finally made their debut in India today. The 8 GB, 4th Gen iPod nano (aka ‘nanochromatic’) is available in all colors except Red – i.e. Silver, Black, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Pink and is priced at Rs. 8,300. Considering a conversion rate of 46.5 Indian Rupees to a US dollar, that is a premium of about Rs. 1,372 (20%) over the US price of $ 149 (Rs. 6,928)

As we had speculated, the 16 GB nano is not yet available in India and is expected by 2nd/3rd week of October. It’ll be priced at Rs. 10,800. This means we pay a premium of about Rs. 1,547 (17%) over the current US price of $ 199 (Rs. 9,253). I hope it hits before Diwali or Apple will miss a major opportunity to push some decent numbers.

The new iPod nanos look really svelte. If you don’t think you need one, go see one in person and your views might just change a little! Of all the colors, Blue, Orange and Green looked most beautiful, but I found Black (more like dark-slate-grey) the best. Color choice is a matter of personal taste, so I am sure some of you will like White, Purple and Pink too.

The 6th gen 120 GB iPod classic is available too. It retails for Rs. 14,300 – a markup of about Rs. 2,722 (24%) over the current US price of $ 249 (Rs. 11,578).

We didn’t find much about the 2nd gen iPod touch except the usual vague “expected by 2nd, 3rd week of October”. The details on pricing are sketchy at the moment, but given what we are seeing with the other iPods, expect a mark-up of 17-25% over the US price.

If I were to read into these margins, I think Apple expects maximum volumes on the 16 GB Nano. The iPod classic has only one thing going for it – storage – not something that I expect to appeal to many in India, and so it should be moving off the shelves rather slowly.

Finally a note on the iPods of older generation – they are very much around at most shops (both iStore and other retailers) and in good numbers too. They aren’t discounted deeply, but at least in case of the 3rd gen (aka ‘fatty’) 8 GB nano, the price has been slashed from Rs. 9,300 to Rs. 8,300 to match the pricing of 4th gen Nanos.

Update:(27 Oct): the 3rd gen iPod nanos are now deeply discounted.

In short:

^*Limited stock only.

Update: We still don’t know when the new iPod touch will come to India, though end Oct/first week of Nov seems likely.

Update (2 Nov): The news on iPod touch availability is not looking good. Looks like they’ve run into some kind of licensing/bureaucratic tangle.

Update (9 Nov): iPod touch is now available in stores.

This entry was posted Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Hardware, iPod. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.