Is it really happening? Is the world's most thickly settled nation
finally getting the iPhone in earnest? If a bold (albeit
woolly) report from China's own national news agency is to be
believed, China Unicom has just
locked down a deal that'll grant it exclusive rights to sell
Apple's heralded smartphone in mainland China for three whole
years. Unfortunately, most of the nitty-gritty details are absent,
but we are led to believe that this will be the first-ever iPhone
sold with any branding at all outside of logos splashed on at
Cupertino. The "Wo" icon you see just below the speaker
signifies that this here device is
ready to rock on the carrier's 3G network, though we still
can't say with any amount of certainty if said image is fully
legitimate. We're also waiting to hear whether it'll be the iPhone
3G or 3GS (or both) that's sold, and we're particular curious as to
whether or not these handsets will
include WiFi modules.
In related news, it does sound as if China Unicom bent over
backwards a bit to make this all come together, with the article
stating that it
signed on to move between one and two million units per year
regardless of how many consumers actually show up to buy one. If
you'll recall, an eerily similar agreement has Russian operators in
a world of financial hurt, but we get the feeling the reception
in China will be quite a bit warmer. At any rate, it's noted that
Unicom will be snapping up the devices from Apple at a cost of
around 3,000 Chinese yuan apiece ($439), with end users being asked
to pay an undisclosed lesser amount on contract. If all goes well,
the units could hit Chinese shops as early as September, though
only time will tell how everything shakes out. Oh, and considering
that Apple can
hardly keep up with iPhone 3GS demand as it is, we suspect
it'll want to wait a few months anyway before stressing its supply
channels further.
Update: A China Unicom spokeswoman has now been
quoted as
saying that "we have made progress but there are still some
problems to be resolved." Really? Another round of this?
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