Apple's Indian App Store now displays prices in rupees

Since the Apple App Store opened to Indian users, the prices of all paid apps on it were displayed in US dollars. The Apple App Store is now displaying prices of all its paid apps in rupees. 

The move by Apple is a good one as this reduces the need to convert the prices and gamble on the rate of the dollar to the rupee. The Google Play store already displays the cost of paid apps in rupees. Now, there appears to be uniformity amongst the biggest app markets.

Indian prices now appearing on the Apple App Store

The move comes as a timely one as it is widely expected that Apple will be launching the iPhone 5 in the near future. The iPhone 5 was expected to be launched today in India, but it appears that Apple has pushed back the date of launch. A recent report stated that the reason behind the delay was that Apple had not finalised the pricing for the upcoming smartphone in India. The price of the 16GB iPhone 4S handset was reduced to Rs 41,500, and reduced further to Rs 38,500 roughly 10 days later, indicating that the iPhone 5 was on its way. 

Another plausible explanation to the delay is the shortage in supply of the iPhone 5 due to Apple employing stricter quality controls. The iPhone 5, though a booming success the world over, has been plagued by issues such as scratches found on the handset straight out of the box and a purple haze that appears with images clicked by its camera.

However, the grey market is flooded with the iPhone 5 priced at a premium. 

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the iPhone 5:

• 4-inch, 326ppi Retina display at 1136 x 640 pixels,
• GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, LTE and Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD recording, 720p front-facing camera
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions

Made entirely out of aluminium and glass, the iPhone 5 weighs 112 grams, and is 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S, and is the thinnest iPhone yet at 7.6mm. Apple has chosen to debut iOS 6 with the iPhone 5. The new OS includes Apple's own Maps app, an updated version of Siri and lots more. Overall, the new iPhone has been upgraded in almost all respects.

One of the biggest changes to iOS is the addition of Apple’s own Maps app in the place of Google Maps. The new Maps app has a built-in search for local points of interest, with over 100 million possible suggestions. Other features of the Maps app include navigation, routing, 3D maps, satellite imagery – that wraps around the 3D maps – and the ability to get directions directly through Siri. Most of the standard features of the Maps app, including satellite view, are available in almost all countries the iPhone ships to.