Apple's iPhone to be launched in India from 22nd August

The touch screen Apple iPhone will be available India mobile through Bharti Airtel at the stroke of midnight on 21st August, though the company has not disclosed its pricing.

Vodafone is also slated to bring Apples's iPhone later this year.

Apple iplans to sell the iPhone in a big way by entering into deals with telecommunications companies throughout the world.  In India it has tied up with  Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, the two biggest GSM operators to launch the sleek 3G handsets that sold a whopping one million units within the first thre days of launch. (See: Apple, AT&T sell 1 million new iPhones in 3 days; users download 10 million applications)

The iPhone will compete with high-end handsets such as the HTC Touch, Nokia's  N series and BlackBerry.

Airtel subscribers will be able to purchase the iPhone at Airtel's Relationship Centres from 22nd August, Bharti said.

"iPhone has been an iconic technological revelation of this year and Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector," Sanjay Kapoor, president, Bharti Airtel mobile services, said.    

The iconic iPhone is embedded with all 3G features and is twice as fast as the existing mobile phones. The phone also has in-built GPS system, that facilitates as a navigation and positioning tool.

"Introducing iPhone in India further underscores Bharti's commitment to enrich the communication experience of Airtel users," Kapoor said.    

Leading cell phone makers like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have stepped up their R&D efforts to bring feature rich phones in India to compete iPhones.