As Apple's ultimate mobile gadget 'iPhone' prepares to conquer gizmo geeks in India, rival camps are anything but perturbed saying the iconic touchscreen phone was hardly a threat to their sales.

A lot of hype has been generated ahead of the launch of iPhone, which would be available at Rs 31,000 for the 8Gb memory model and Rs 36,100 for 16GB from Friday.

Leading service providers Vodafone-Essar and Bharti Airtel, who have been accepting bookings from customers, have said the response has been extremely good.

Finland-based Nokia Corp, which dominates the Indian handset market, said that its sales would not be impacted by the launch. But the company's decision to launch its latest multimedia device N96 in India, almost a month ahead of global launch, speaks volumes about Nokia's concerns.

"Our sales will not be affected by the launch of iPhone in the country. There are different segments of consumers whose needs are different," Nokia India Director-Marketing Devinder Kishore had said.

Samsung, which also has music phones in its stable, said, "There is a global trend towards touchscreen handsets and we have a strong line-up available, which we are in the process of introducing globally and in India."

US major Motorola is of the view that heightened interest in mobile devices benefits the entire mobile device industry.

"The Indian mobile phone industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. With the massive size of this industry, we believe, consumers should have a wide choice of products to choose from," Lloyd Mathias, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing), Motorola India, said.

Vodafone has been asking for a booking amount of Rs 10,000, while the balance is to be paid at the time of delivery of phone, while Airtel has kept the advance money at Rs 5,000.

The iPhone will initially be available in the four metros, besides Bengaluru and Hyderabad at select dealers of both service providers.

One of the competitors pointed out that the high price of iPhone would be a major disadvantage, as India is mainly a mass market and extremely price sensitive.

In international markets, Apple's iPhone is bundled with the services and the operators offer huge subsidy. In the US market, the iPhone costs about $200 (little over Rs 8,000) whereas in the Indian market the phone will be priced over four times higher.

Commenting on the features of iPhone, Nokia spokesperson said, "The iPhone is an interesting device and it is great to see other companies also share our vision of connected multimedia devices."

Motorola also claimed that they have a strong line up of touchscreen and music based phones in India. "We have continued to enthral the Indian consumers with exciting and innovative products and compelling mobile experiences."