The pricing of iPhone 3G sales in India proved to be a real dampener and kept customers from queuing up to buy the handset. Bharti and Vodafone have invested good amount to advertise their respective bundled schemes of iPhone 3G. But all these has resulted in not benefiting the involved players but the grey marketers who have suddenly witnessed surge in sales since iPhone 3G launch in India.

Reports say with the official iPhone 3G priced at Rs 31,000, customers are finding it more suitable price wise to purchase the handset from the grey market where it is speculated to be offered for Rs 20,000-Rs 22,000.

Customers generally believe that with 3G not available in India and the bouquet of services offered by Vodafone and Airtel being of generic nature it makes sense to procure the handset from the grey market where the only but major risk is in case the handset encounters some issue in functioning and support or trouble shooting becomes difficult.

While Apple should not mind these sales it is Vodafone and Airtel who are being hit bitterly by these grey market sales as it is eating into their share.

The message is clear that the Indian consumers are price sensitive but somehow Apple and operators in India are turning a blind eye to this fact.