Yep some good points raised but still the bottom line is .co.in is viewed by india as a country. Let me pick a site at random and show you some figures to give you an idea on how the .co.in is viewed
One of the biggest jobs company online in the world is CareerJet now they have jobs for every country they have just moved into doing russian jobs for russian or people wanting to move there.
Careerjet uses .co.in and have done since 2005 they also own the .in but only use it to point to the .co.in there site also only shows the use of .co.in... they advertise 100 thousand + in india and all together 16 million jobs worldwide now these guys would have to take a domain very serious its there business, no office for people to come visit its an online business and having the right extension is essential for SEO purposes.
There stats by visiting indian people
Visitors by Country: India 93.5%
United States 2%
Alexa rank #30,600: Up 10,644 ranks over the last three months.
Ok nice stats shows who views the .co.in and traffic related its used mostly by indians and no one outside so no influence. Now the interesting thing is this company is french owned so like Google they based there business model on what works because the industry and we all know is extremely competitive.
Just another point i thought i would raise chaps... So do not dismiss the .co.in by all means it may be quiet but its a powerful extension and also alot of the very good .co.in domains have all gone and you wont see them forsale due to them being used mostly, sure the LLL would be more suited to the .in excellent point because sure it looks good and it works well and serves a great purpose like that.
Ive done lots of traveling in business in the internet market over the years i worked for nominet in the UK also owned my own internet ISP and hosting company so i was fortunate to meet google, yahoo etc at business conventions and now i am out of this business due to retiring with the wife i just want to see fellow domainers do well
Steve