With  August 22 approaching and nothing to do on a particularly boring Monday afternoon, some of us in the office decided to go a bit “intellectual”. We were just lazily debating over how going global will impact the iPhone and vise-a-versa. Lazy chatter? We thought so too. As it turned out, however, someone has actually thought about it and what’s more, created apps with local flavor!In its second phase of release one of Apple’s biggest targets will probably be India with already two carriers offering the 3G to a vast market. At least one dev, one Muthu Armugum has thought so and released three apps, for very different usages at the App store. Each of the apps - India News, Cricket and TamilDaily are priced at $0.99 and come under the following categories:
1. India News: Category: News August 07 

2. Cricket:        Category: Sports, August: 13

3. Tamil Daily: Category: Productivity, August 19

As the release dates show, the India launch has been anticipated well in advance.

So far, India News has found a common cord with the Indians in the US (both resident and non-resident)

Cricket has so far received 1 star reviews. Expect this to change, they are crazy about cricket in India. (and in case you aren’t sure what cricket is, check the Wikipedia.

Tamil Daily has been launched just today. So far, no comments. (No pun intended)

Just by looking at the apps, it seems that India News is a good app, with good news coverage and promising features like news alerts through SMS etc. Tamil Daily is a bit regional in the sense it is a language spoken only by some people in one South Indian state.

These products have nothing new in them as such. Nothing novel about them. But hang on for a while once the iPhone hits more global markets. Expect some really colorful apps with global appeal. With the iPhone poised for its second phase of release in 20 more countries, it seems that this hi-tech platform has crossed cultural barriers.