iPhone 4 to launch in India on May 27

Apple?s hugely popular iPhone 4 will finally hit store shelves in India on Friday, nearly a year after the smartphone was launched in the U.S. and three months before the next generation of device is expected to be released there.

The announcement comes as reports say that the next generation of the device, possibly named iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S and sporting a sleeker ?curved glass? design, a faster processor and a better camera, could hit U.S. shelves in September.

Mobile operator Aircel announced the May 27 launch in a news release, saying that the iPhone 4 will come with unique pricing models that allow customers to recover up to 100 percent of the upfront cost within two years.

The 16 GB model from the phone will be priced at Rs 34,500 and the 32 GB at Rs 40,900, which could fully be ?recovered? by the customer at a discounted monthly rentals of Rs 699 and Rs 800 respectively, the company said.

India?s top carrier Airtel too was expected to launch the iPhone 4 on Friday, media reports said, however, there was no official word from the company yet.

The iPhone 4 comes with a higher-quality screen, longer battery life than the previous model, besides FaceTime for video chat, 5MP rear facing camera with LED flash and HD video recording.

However, with the growing popularity of cheaper alternatives that run on the far more popular Android operating system, analysts were skeptical about wide success of the steeply priced iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4?s sales could also take a dent as the world?s leading Android device producer Samsung has lined up the launch of its high-end Galaxy S2 phone, featuring a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor, 4.3-inch AMOLED display and an 8 MP camera on June 3, close on the heels of its international launch.

Apple has been often criticised of ignoring India and experts say that the Cupertino, California-based company usually tries to dump stale hardware in emerging markets ahead of newer product launches in the U.S. and elsewhere.