Indian Buyers' Choice: Apple iPad or New Car?
By Bill Visnic April 15, 2010Tech-hungry customers in India reportedly are paying almost as much for the new Apple iPad as it costs to buy a brand-new Nano car produced in that country, said a report from Bloomberg this week.
The iPad has emerged as the industry's must-have consumer-electronic device and although official sales have yet to begin in India, iPads imported through gray-market channels are fetching 100,000 rupees, the equivalent of about $2,250.
Tata Motors' Nano went on sale in India in July last year starting at $2,500 -- or just $250 more than Indian buyers are paying for those gray-market iPads.
In the U.S., the least-expensive iPad starts at $499.
Just like the iPad, Tata touched off a buying frenzy when it launched the Nano car last year. A month after its introduction, Tata had 200,000 orders in hand and the waiting list had stretched to 2011.
The company has ambitions to sell the Nano in the U.S., but has endured some recent bad press: Two Nanos have caught fire in less than a month, the most recent happening last week to a car owned by the company. Reports last fall said the inexpensive car had bad electrical switches that overheated nearby plastic. -- Bill Visnic, senior editor
Photos by Apple and Tata Motors
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