A Rs. 3 text message or filling out this form is all that you need to book an iPhone in India—now! Vodafone has started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 3G which is supposed to be launched in India “soon”. There’s no word on how much lighter your wallet will be post the purchase, nor is there any definite launch date yet.

As expected, there’s a carefully worded disclaimer in place on the Vodafone website declaring that the phone is “currently compatible only with 2G networks” and that “some of the features may (read will) not work in India”. 3G is not yet in place in India and it won’t be coming anytime soon. Similarly, we don’t have an iTunes Store, so there’s a possibility that the App Store may not be available to us Indians at the time of launch. (Ed note: Steve Jobs did say, however, that more than sixty countries would be blessed with the App Store, so there’s definitely hope for the second most populous country in the world.)

This is, of course, good news for people waiting for the iPhone. If my prophesying skills are up to scratch, I say we’ll see it appear on Indian shores before the festival of Deepaawali comes along. As you may know, Airtel is also launching the iPhone in India, so we expect pray and hope to see tariffs driven down due to competition.

The question is: Are you going to book now and bet the farm on Vodafone or do you intend to wait and watch all the details emerge? We definitely vouch for the latter but, if the iPhone mania we witnessed in the United States when the device was initially launched was any indication, not many of you will be paying heed to our sage advice. Heck, three members of the Smoking Apples team already are proud owners of jailbroken first generation iPhones (not including yours truly though)—so much for being cautious and sensible!