I have met this guy in real life. I purchased an iphone 32 gb from him in bangalore last monday for 4.1 BTC through an arms length transaction and everything is working good with the phone. he is one of the investor in
www.coinmonk.com that i manage. i m in touch with this guy every now and then over phone and skype.
A bitcoin group hold bitcoin meetups in bangalore every first sunday
http://www.meetup.com/IndiaBitcoin for which i am a part of.
This guy was present for the meetup yesterday as well. Benson Samuel who is one of the moderators of the forum was also there for the meetup and he can confirm it for you.
As the OP is saying, he is really just the reseller of iphone and he do not have the phone in hand yet. if he sells it here, he will get it from his reseller with in 3-4 days and ships it to the buyer.
I am definitely NOT recommending to skip the escrow, but just stating the facts that i know about the OP.
I know @dashingriddler (sold him a BFL jalapeno back in June.)
But better use escrow for this sale.