The cheapest iPhone in the world: On India's Aircel

The First time I read about it, I said to myself..Huh! What's the big deal, it's an old model so no one would prefer it anyways and I also thought that in other countries it would be cheaper. But after looking at the figures, I think Aircel has really pulled up a big gig. Indian operator Aircel sprung a pleasant surprise on Friday by announcing that it had slashed the iPhone 3GS price to Rs. 9,999 (US $180). While the iPhone 3GS is available for free on a contract in the US, as far as total cost of ownership is concerned, the Aircel deal is probably the cheapest iPhone anywhere in the world.

Aircel is offering the black 8GB iPhone 3GS for an upfront payment of Rs. 9,999 (US $180) and an "advance rental" of Rs. 3,000 (US $55). This advance rental gets you 2GB of 3G data per month for an year or 1000 minutes and 2500 text messages per month for 6 months.

The icing on the cake is that the phones are unlocked, which means you are free to take the phone anywhere in the world, and put in a SIM of your choice. That's right, an unlocked iPhone for a total cost of $235 ($180 + $55).

As a contrast, in the US you can pick-up an iPhone 3GS 8GB for free but with a two-year $39.99 a month contract. That's a whooping $960 over the 24 months, and the device is locked to AT&T for the length of the contract.

Alternatively, you can pick up an unlocked iPhone for an up-front $375 in the US, £319.00 ($498) in the UK, HKD 2,888 ($372) in Hong Kong, A$449 ($465) in Australia or Euro 349 ($424) in Spain. That makes the Aircel iPhone 3GS the cheapest by a wide-margin - $137 or around Rs. 7500.

Now if that isn't the cheapest iPhone deal anywhere in the world, we don't know what is. No seriously, if your country/ operator offers a cheaper iPhone total cost of ownership, then do share it with us in the comments. And don't forget to share it with your friends.:D

Have a look at what Iphone 3GS has: