Just came back from the iPhone India launch. Here is a list of what all went down.
Breaking News:
-
Windows was being used to activate the iPhone!
- Person who bought the phone second, got it almost an hour late.
- Around 30 people bought the iPhone today.
- The Mobile Store will also be retailing the iPhone, most probably only with Airtel.
Seconds before the launch there was silence and someone had the balls to shout - “iPhone sucks.” That was me!
Now for the glitch:
According to the sales rep:
Apple has a database of IMEI nos. and first 4 digits of the no. on the SIM card. Now these 4 digits allow Apple to know whether the phone is from Airtel or Vodafone and maybe same goes for the other international operators. The IMEI & first 4 nos. tell Apple whether the phone is legit or no.
Also, I can use any old Airtel SIM card with my new iPhone.
Now, under the assumption that a consignment of iPhones being sent to India has a certain range of IMEI nos. if someone is able to get the range of the IMEI nos., which I may add is pretty simple as the IMEI is printed on the back of every phone.
Coupling the facility of being able to use any old Airtel SIM card & the ability to find and spoof the IMEI no. 1 can theoretically fool iTunes into thinking that this is a legit phone.
Coming to the event, the event was drab. Onlookers were asked to come up on stage and sing songs. There were mimicry artists & magicians.
7 out of 10 people had no clue what-so-ever about what was happening.
Here is me at the event:
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:27 am
Lol! Dude, you actually expected the noobs (airtel reps) to use OS X ?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
I don’t know about him but I’d certainly hoped they would. Idiots!
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
There were actually 30 buyers for iPhone!! NOW thats some heavy demand.
And you warned ppl there by shouting, makes no difference.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
yup…makes no difference for ignorant people.
Ignorance is delusional bliss.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
@Pat, yeah I expected them to have at least 1 Mac somewhere around the entire launch event! Event the music console was being manned using a Windows machine and the guys there were playing Solitaire!.
@Garuav I was trying to warn them that 31k is not worth that phone.
@T