The phone we've been waiting for and tracking since the time it was announced, has finally been launched.

The Apple iPhone 3G was launched at midnight and the crowd was not as large as the one that the US launched witnessed, the price obviously being the main deterrent. There were people who'd turned up to buy the iPhone, having pre-booked it earlier, but it does seem that the iPhone 3G is being relegated to just being a status symbol rather than being considered a fully-functional mobile phone.

The 8 GB version, as we'd mentioned, costs Rs 31,000 and the 16 GB version costs Rs 36,100.

People aren't too happy shelling out that kind of money for a phone that was given the rating of 2.5.

The price of the iPhone did break a lot of hearts set on it, and the launch of the N96 could not have come at a better time.

Let us know if you'd go for another phone just to make up for not buying the iPhone 3G and why.

Also read: A multimedia marvel from Nokia