D.Phone To Deliver iPhone in China?

[MacRumors]

Chinatechnews claims that D.Phone has acquired rights to the iPhone in China.

Chen Jingsheng, vice president of D.Phone, has told Chinese media that D.Phone has signed a strategic agreement with Apple for the iPhone and iPhone will be first sold at D.Phone's stores after it enters the Chinese market.

The iPhone will reportedly come to China in 2008 near the Spring Festival hoilday.

Article Link

[zombitronic]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

The iPhone will reportedly come to China in 2008 near the Spring Festival hoilday.

A.K.A Chinese New Year, A.K.A the Lunar New Year. The year of the Earth Rat.

[Croatian]

if the iPhone is sold at good price, $299 USD ... i can see 1 million units sold in one weekend since china has billion + people ... whats 1 million rich once spending $299 usd on an iphone

[kkat69]

Originally Posted by Croatian

if the iPhone is sold at good price, $299 USD ... i can see 1 million units sold in one weekend since china has billion + people ... whats 1 million rich once spending $299 usd on an iphone

Bah, they have their 'clone' iPhone. Which actually comes with a complimentary Stylus BUUHAHA ROFL.

[appie57]

That's when I'll be there on vacation: I'll let y'all know when I catch some information (translated by my girlfriend).

[Drumjim85]

Does that mean that when ever this festival thing is, is when the 3G phone will be released... ??

From my understanding, a phone without 3g wouldn't do well in China...

[macdim]

HAHAHAHA... iPhone in China before Canada?!

Wow Rogers...just wow...

[Cubu]

Originally Posted by Drumjim85

Does that mean that when ever this festival thing is, is when the 3G phone will be released... ??

From my understanding, a phone without 3g wouldn't do well in China...

Unlike other asian cities/countries, such as Hong Kong, Japan, China doesn't use 3G...yet. 2G iPhone will do just fine in mainland China. However, Chinese New Year is only 2 months from now. I really don't think they have enough time to release iPhone in China in 2 months.

[igazza]

1 million iphones in first 2 weeks is a possibility

[Beefeater]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Chinatechnews claims that D.Phone has acquired rights to the iPhone in China.


The iPhone will reportedly come to China in 2008 near the Spring Festival hoilday.

Article Link

The Chinese are really going to sell the actual iPhone? I thought they just ripped of American company's by selling knockoffs...

[DrFrankTM]

Originally Posted by macdim

HAHAHAHA... iPhone in China before Canada?!

Wow Rogers...just wow...

That would be very sad, but somehow not completely surprising. Canada needs some real competition in mobile phone service.

[MikeTheC]

What I want to know is:

Will the iPhones we'll be selling them come with the lead included, or will that be an optional upgrade? Maybe Apple should sell them with GHB or roofies imbedded in the casing. Or, I dunno, we Americans are innovative, so maybe we can come up with something else.

[macdim]

Originally Posted by MikeTheC

What I want to know is:

Will the iPhones we'll be selling them come with the lead included, or will that be an optional upgrade? Maybe Apple should sell them with GHB or roofies imbedded in the casing. Or, I dunno, we Americans are innovative, so maybe we can come up with something else.

Indeed... a low blow, but it's the truth.

[BigDogBJ]

Originally Posted by MikeTheC

What I want to know is:

Will the iPhones we'll be selling them come with the lead included, or will that be an optional upgrade? Maybe Apple should sell them with GHB or roofies imbedded in the casing. Or, I dunno, we Americans are innovative, so maybe we can come up with something else.

This made me chuckle. Turn your IPhone around and look at the small print down at the bottom, just above the black bit: "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled (i.e. made) in China". Nice plan on the GHB but the US isn't shipping IPhones to China, they're shipping them to you. Same goes for your IPod, MacBook, MacBook Pro .... strange isn't it as we all know that Chines factories can only make cheap rubbish.

I hope D.Phone hasn't paid too much to have the distribution rights. By Spring Festival everyone in China that wants an IPhone will already have one. They've certainly been available in Beijing since late August, probably before that, and loads of people have them.

I've been having lunch with friends in a restaurant, they've admired my phone, a short call to a mobile phone number and within 1/2 hour 2 new boxed IPhones are on the table. Standard China Mobile SIM card swaps from the old phone to the IPhone and before we've finished eating my friends are talking on their new IPhones. Very tough to beat distribution like that.

[airfang]

no way... I am from China and I know the situation... this D. Phone company has absolutely no standpoint when face the two mobile giants in China, i.e. China Unicom and China Mobile. Although some of the Chinese use simpler edition of phones from China Telecom... in all my 23 years in China I have absolutely never heard of such company called D. Phone whatsoever.

So I googled a bit checking out what this D. Phone company really is...it gave me a homepage:

http://www.dixintong.com/

It is basically a phone seller rather than a mobile carrier... I am confused about this news

[Phil A.]

Originally Posted by airfang

no way... I am from China and I know the situation... this D. Phone company has absolutely no standpoint when face the two mobile giants in China, i.e. China Unicom and China Mobile. Although some of the Chinese use simpler edition of phones from China Telecom... in all my 23 years in China I have absolutely never heard of such company called D. Phone whatsoever.

So I googled a bit checking out what this D. Phone company really is...it gave me a homepage:

http://www.dixintong.com/

It is basically a phone seller rather than a mobile carrier... I am confused about this news

I think what the article is saying is that once the iPhone is announced in China, D.Phone will be a strategic retail outlet for it in a similar way to Carphone Warehouse in the UK (and we all know how well that worked )

[sgarringer]

Originally Posted by Drumjim85

Does that mean that when ever this festival thing is, is when the 3G phone will be released... ??

From my understanding, a phone without 3g wouldn't do well in China...

There is more 3G in my home state of Iowa than there is in all of China. Since China decided to roll out their own "proprietary" WCDMA 3G implementation I think thats stalled their build out. But their network shows amazing resilience on the fact that there are over 300 million subscribers on China Mobile (2G GPRS GSM network) alone. I hope to be going to China this summer and although I doubt that my Iowa Wireless SIM will have global roaming by that point, I'll be giving it a test over there anyway.

[yellowjacket]

Originally Posted by sgarringer

There is more 3G in my home state of Iowa than there is in all of China. Since China decided to roll out their own "proprietary" WCDMA 3G implementation I think thats stalled their build out. But their network shows amazing resilience on the fact that there are over 300 million subscribers on China Mobile (2G GPRS GSM network) alone. I hope to be going to China this summer and although I doubt that my Iowa Wireless SIM will have global roaming by that point, I'll be giving it a test over there anyway.

To help elaborate more on sgarringer's points, China's proprietary 3G standard is called TD-SCDMA, one that has had numerous delays ranging from performance, to deployment, etc. China also does have a CDMA network, but users on that are far fewer than on GSM.

I do have to agree that with something like the iPhone would sell where in China, where SIM cards are easily exchangeable for the GSM networks. In fact, the handset biz model in Asia varies quite drastically than NA and EU, with handsets are easily replaced, while subscriptions don't change. It's not unusual for handset users to change and phone every half year or so.

Still, it's strange hear that the boss of the distributor company speak so boldly about their deal with Apple, when there's usually a gag order in place, no?

[cheekybobcat]

I just don't see SJ as a China negotiator or the iPhone reaching China anytime soon. It's not even in Canada yet.