In the United States and several other countries, Apple has sold millions of iPhone devices. But in China there has not been a good number of sales whatsoever. China Unicom reportedly sold only about 5,000 iPhones in a week. Two of the biggest problems with selling the iPhone in China so far is that the price is too high and it does not come bundled with WiFi.
The iPhone costs $1,025 in China while it costs $299 in the United States with an AT&T contract. China Unicom is selling the iPhone for a price that is 26% higher than what it is selling for in Hong Kong.
“We believe that eventually China will emerge as a major market for iPhone sales, but it could take a year or two to gain meaningful unit traction as it did in the U.S.,” stated Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster.
The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is now available in China through the China Unicom telecommunications company. The problem with the iPhone in China is that there isn’t any built in WiFi. Apple did this in order to comply with a government regulation. In China the iPhone costs between 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025).
Given the high price in China, it seems unlikely that the phone will be as big of a hit there as it was in America. That seems unfortunate considering that the iPhone is manufactured in Shenzhen. WiFi was banned by the Chinese government in order to replace it with WAPI technology. WAPI stands for WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure. WAPI was rejected by the ISO and was one of the reasons for a U.S. and China Trade dispute.
“We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year,” stated Unicom spokesman Yi Difei. Do you think that this will hinder people in China from buying the device?
China Unicom is planning to start selling the Apple iPhone in the most populated country in the world starting October 15. The price is expected to be 1,999 yuan ($293) to buy the phone for an 8GB model. And the 16GB model is expected to be 2,999 yuan ($439). Both of the models will need a 2 year contract to buy the phones at those prices. The phone plans will begin at 186 yuan ($27) making it very affordable. Apple and China Unicom have a 3 year agreement.
China Unicom and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) have made a deal to sell the iPhone in China. That is great news for Apple iPhone developers because their customer base grow even bigger. Currently in China, there are about 687 million wireless subscribers.
The iPhone will be sold in China in the fourth quarter. And the China Unicom and Apple deal has been signed for about a 3 year contract. According to The Wall Street Journal China Unicom will not be sharing revenue with Apple but will buy them on wholesale and resell it to consumers.
The good news for Chinese consumers is that China Unicom will be subsidizing the phone. But there is no word on how much it will be subsidized. India on the other hand does not currently have any subsidizing phone making it harder for consumers there to afford it.
China Unicom has about 141 million subscribers as of this past July. China Unicom hopes to attract more high-end consumers. China Unicom will be rolling out a 3G network now. The 3G network will be launched by September 28.
One of the problems with launching the iPhone in this market is that there are already a good number of iPhone owners in China. About 1.5 million iPhones are floating around China that have been bought from overseas and have been jailbroken.
The Apple iPhone will soon be launching in the most populated country in the world. A testing center for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has confirmed a government license for an iPhone prototype that was modified for the Chinese market.
It is uncertain how many licenses Apple must receive in order to sell the mobile device in China. But Apple has nearly completed the negotiations necessary to have China Unicom distribute the phone.
An analyst Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong anticipates that the phone should be available as early as October. China currently has about 687 million mobile phone users whereas the U.S. has about 270 million.
Chinese telecommunications company China Unicom has just ordered about 5 million iPhones from Apple indicating that the device will be selling in China very soon. China Unicom bought 5 million iPhones at the price of $1.46 billion.
The iPhones which will be powered on WCDMA networks without WiFi ccosted 2,000 yuan ($293) each. “The price of the 8G standard iPhone is set at about 2,400 yuan and the 16G may be sold at 4,800 yuan,” stated China Unicom General Manager of Customer Development Yu Zaonan.
Rumor has it that the Apple and China Unicom deal will run for about 3 years. The AT&T and Apple deal is going to expire in 2011.
Dopod is a Taiwanese manufacturing company known for building Windows Mobile smartphones. Soon Dopod will be launching several HTC mobile phones powered by Android: HTC Hero and HTC Click.
The HTC Hero has WiFi capabilities is expected to arrive in China in late August on China Unicom for a price of 5,600 Yuan ($820). The HTC Click will cost 3,400 Yuan ($500). Google Maps will not be available on the Hero as the default map service, but it can still be downloaded.
This is the first big release of Google Android in China.
On the website of China’s State Radio Regulatory Commission, there is a listing that appears to be a regulatory approval for the iPhone. The approval date appears to be May 7th, 2009 and the certificate is expiring in 5 years. This will give China Unicom an ample amount of time to capitalize on a rumored three year deal that they have with Apple.
