Apple is in talks with the two CDMA network providers in India, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, to offer a version of the iPhone based on the CDMA technology, WSJ reports.
Apple is currently making a CDMA version of iPhone for Verizon Wireless in the United States, which is expected to sell early 2011. Launch date in India is not yet clear though.
India currently has about 670 million wireless users, of which roughly 20% use CDMA (code division multiple access) phones. For the same reason, Apple may find it tough to generate significant revenue from a CDMA-based iPhone in India.
Currently, Apple accounted for less than 1% of India’s smartphone market share, while Nokia shipped 1.8 million smartphones in India and accounted for 71% of the market during that time.
Apple’s iPhone is currently available in India through Bharti AirTel and Vodafone Essar using the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology.
It has been reported earlier that, Google is pushing to become a significant player in India’s huge wireless industry and working with a number of Indian handset manufacturers to launch low-cost Android-powered devices in the coming months.
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