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China Unicom Purchases 5 Million iPhones to Go on Sale Next Month?

mkrishnan said:
Ahh, thanks. I missed the "no wifi" rumor and the associated apparent PRC law prohibiting phones sold there from having wifi and cellular services.... Verrry interesting.
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With users only on the cell phone connection, it's easier for the Chinese government to spy on them. The more routes that people have to access the internet (WiFi) or their own VPNs (WiFi) or illegal VPNs (WiFi), the less the government can spy on them. Terrible but true.

We all know that our data goes through AT&T's network, but what government laws do we have to protect our privacy from AT&T snooping employees? (I assume it's the same law as for our home computer ISPs, but is there a federal law that is protecting our privacy?)
 
iphones4evry1 said:
With users only on the cell phone connection, it's easier for the Chinese government to spy on them. The more routes that people have to access the internet (WiFi) or their own VPNs (WiFi) or illegal VPNs (WiFi), the less the government can spy on them. Terrible but true.

...and you thought AT&T was F**ked up!
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Which is why I would've avoided China if I were in charge at Apple. "Instant marketshare boost" though they may be, I would have moral conflicts about making tons of cash selling a dumbed-down version of a phone that would be used by an oppressive government as yet another spy tool.

Jeezus, the thought of how intrusive they are just creeps me out.
 
Sehnsucht said:
Which is why I would've avoided China if I were in charge at Apple. "Instant marketshare boost" though they may be, I would have moral conflicts about making tons of cash selling a dumbed-down version of a phone that would be used by an oppressive government as yet another spy tool.

Jeezus, the thought of how intrusive they are just creeps me out.
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It's probably just a matter of time before the Chinese government, via China Unicom, hacks their way right into Apple and starts recording everything at Apple. :mad:
 
5 million only?...

Well that's gone in 2 days. :D I think the order should have been like - 50 Million to fill all of those orders. China has about billion people. 5 million to them is like filling a 16 oz glass with 2 tablespoons of water.
 
mac*jedi*g said:
Well that's gone in 2 days. :D I think the order should have been like - 50 Million to fill all of those orders. China has about billion people. 5 million to them is like filling a 16 oz glass with 2 tablespoons of water.
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That's like the myth about all the billions of GSM users being a market for the iPhone. Many of those billions can't afford the device or the data bill, even if they had 3G coverage.

The majority of Chinese make around $1200 a year. The better-off ones who work at say, making Apple iPhones, might make $300 a month. Which they probably owe most of to the factory for room and board.

There are more people with money in the cities, but I suspect many of those have already gotten grey market iPhones (supposedly there are at least a million of them in China already).

Scroll down to see average salaries in China.
 
The story sounds odd for so many reasons, most of all because 5 million iPhones sold would put the Chinese market immediately at number 2 worldwide. UK and France crossed 1 million a few months ago, Germany this month. All 3 countries had the iPhone for almost 2 years and each of the 3 countries has a bigger potential market for the iPhone.

I know there are people who are ready to believe anything about China, but this sounds very unusual. And it is, of course, going to become another rumour which by many will be seen as a fact until disproven.
 
2.4k yuan isnt much actually. A lot of people in the cities can afford it. Image is pretty important in China and people will buy this if the marketing is good just so they can say "look I am successful".
 
elhungarian said:
So with Apple making WCDMA phones there is no doubt they are capable of making a CMDA phone, hopefully soon :)
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All iPhone 3G and 3GS are WCDMA. They are UMTS via WCDMA with HDSPA), which is a GSM 3G standard.

Nothing to do with CDMA, which was a standard no longer supported by its developer, Qualcomm.

Qualcomm now pushes HSPA and LTE as a replacement for CDMA networks. The few developed countries outside the USA that had any CDMA networks have already shut them down and moved to HSPA. (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea)
 
lixuelai said:
2.4k yuan isnt much actually. A lot of people in the cities can afford it.
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500.000, maybe. 5 million, no.

Image is pretty important in China and people will buy this if the marketing is good just so they can say "look I am successful".
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The statement would rather be "look, I couldn't afford the real thing when it was 3000 yuan on the grey market, but now I got the cheaper crippled version."

This whole vanity argument is a red herring. Sure there are people in China who will waste money on a product they don't really want, but aren't there a lot in the West as well? And aren't there limitless other ways to show your status through expensive brand name products? And aren't most Chinese just as aware of their financial possibilities as most Western people are?

All statistics point to the facts that Chinese rarely take up consumer credits, that they tend to save money rather than spending it and that the average price for a cell phone in China is very, very low.
 
Ok,

I have to disagree with this assessment of the situation.

reverie said:
500.000, maybe. 5 million, no.

All statistics point to the facts that Chinese rarely take up consumer credits, that they tend to save money rather than spending it and that the average price for a cell phone in China is very, very low.
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Chinese consumers spend a disproportionate amount of their incomes on mobile phones. Here are the reasons why:

1) service costs are low but phones tend to be unsubsidized

2) there is a large market for second hand phones on Taobao (China equivalent of ebay) so it is possible to sell a phone for reasonable value after 6 months of owning it

3)Phones ARE a major status symbol for a lot of people because most can't afford to buy a house or a car. The next most visible item is a phone. They have it with them every day so they can use it to make a statement

4)The statement that Chinese rarely take up consumer credit is not true. Traditionally Chinese are known as having a high savings rate, but younger consumers are not following this trend. Use of credit has taken off in a major way in the last two years and this is impacting the way people spend

5)Younger consumers, including a lot of white collar workers in their 20s, still live at home with their parents. In many cases they do not pay rent, and pay very little for food. This means that the income they do have can go towards purchasing items like iphones

6)Walking into any electronics market in a major city in China you can find handsets from Nokia, HTC, LG, Rim, and yes gray market iPhones for 4000+ RMB so the pricing isn't going to deter people looking at the phone as a status symbol

7)China just conceded to the WTO on regulations regarding the sale of media into China which is going to make it easier for concepts like the app store to work here

5 million, doable, definitely. China Unicom is like China Mobile's redheaded stepsister, but still has an awful lot of subscribers.
 
Really? 5 million is not a small sum! So far the users of China Unicom is not over 100 million.Ineed-electronics.com
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to indicate that 5 million was a small sum. It certainly would represent a major achievement, but it is doable.

As of July 2009 China Unicom had 140m subscribers to its mobile phone service. So 5 million phones would require 3.6% of its user base purchasing an iPhone and/or a significant number of China Mobile subscribers jumping ship to follow the phone. Big numbers yes but within the realm of possible.

I have no idea if the 5 million phones purchased rumor is true, the last time I spoke to an Apple employee here they told me that talks were 'ongoing' despite the site's claim to be offering the phone. It will be interesting to see what happens. A lot may come down to solutions to the App store. If China Unicom doesn't offer significant improvement over what can be had purchasing a phone out of HK and jailbreaking it then tech savvy consumers might stick with the gray market. If a version of the app store does make it live over here then 5 million could make sense.
 
Sehnsucht said:
Which is why I would've avoided China if I were in charge at Apple. "Instant marketshare boost" though they may be, I would have moral conflicts about making tons of cash selling a dumbed-down version of a phone that would be used by an oppressive government as yet another spy tool.

Jeezus, the thought of how intrusive they are just creeps me out.
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Its like if Chuck Norris and Kim Jong Il had a baby. :rolleyes:

The only way Western Worlds could make a difference is to stop trading with China until the Government becomes a democracy or the US government could umm, eradicate these inconveniences to Democracy. A lot changed at the Olympics, lets push some more.
 
I have been living a few years in China now. Here is some info which i have collected:

- the income is rising very quickly, so statistics from 2004 won't get you very far (kdarling)
- many Chinese people have an income from property which is almost as high as their salary and which does not appear in most statistics
- people in the modern cities Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc make much more money than other big cities in the back of the country. They can easily afford an iPhone
- i already see lots of people having an iPhone. Very easy to go shopping in Hongkong or order them from ebay.com.
- regarding the spying/monitoring issue, i don't think iPhone users will have any problems. Rich people bring benefit to the Chinese country and usually don't get into any troubles. Monitoring is against poor and unhappy people who might team up and cause problems to the government.
 
Welcome to the world of Apple not caring about US customers. I know everyone is happy for Apple because they have some strange emotional attachment to a company, but the more phones they sell in China the less they are going to care about dumping in time to tweak a phone that might make 1% more people in the US happy.

You will never be able to hide your stupid stock program without jailbreaking. It would take someone at Apple 20 minutes to allow this, but it will never happen because that guy does not exist because having that feature won't make them more money.
 
saturniphone said:
Welcome to the world of Apple not caring about US customers. I know everyone is happy for Apple because they have some strange emotional attachment to a company, but the more phones they sell in China the less they are going to care about dumping in time to tweak a phone that might make 1% more people in the US happy.

You will never be able to hide your stupid stock program without jailbreaking. It would take someone at Apple 20 minutes to allow this, but it will never happen because that guy does not exist because having that feature won't make them more money.
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It's not good for business to cater to only 1% of your customer base, especially if catering to that percentage won't make you more money. And especially if that feature is just "to hide your stupid stock program." That seems like some strange emotional attachment to the layout of your home screen.

Selling iPhones in China is not going to decrease productivity in the US. We'll all be using a relatively equal OS. If you're one of the few people who feels that they need to jailbreak in order to satisfy a compulsive desire, then you need to jailbreak. Don't look to Apple to jeopardize their wheelhouse in order to appease the few who need to over customize their devices.
 
zombitronic said:
It's not good for business to cater to only 1% of your customer base, especially if catering to that percentage won't make you more money. And especially if that feature is just "to hide your stupid stock program." That seems like some strange emotional attachment to the layout of your home screen.

Selling iPhones in China is not going to decrease productivity in the US. We'll all be using a relatively equal OS. If you're one of the few people who feels that they need to jailbreak in order to satisfy a compulsive desire, then you need to jailbreak. Don't look to Apple to jeopardize their wheelhouse in order to appease the few who need to over customize their devices.
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The vast majority of the people on tech sites like this don't think the ability to delete built in apps is "over customizing". Apple forces you into a box and fools people into thinking that they're operating on another plane of existence. You cannot have both. You either take care of your customers or you get a bad reputation. I feel Apple gives an overabundance of time and energy towards acquiring new customers.

If you honestly think my complaints are unique to me you are quite simply kidding yourself. If I asked my non-tech friends what they thought about Apple 5 years ago they would all say "super sexy computers, but they're expensive". Now they all say (I am not guessing this -- I actually ask them) "they're computer are really cool looking, but they really force you to do things their way".

This is just what I think. Apple's behavior leads me to have a relatively guarded outlook towards them. It makes me more cautious to buy their products and that's just how I, and increasingly more and more people, see it.
 
saturniphone said:
Welcome to the world of Apple not caring about US customers. I know everyone is happy for Apple because they have some strange emotional attachment to a company, but the more phones they sell in China the less they are going to care about dumping in time to tweak a phone that might make 1% more people in the US happy.

You will never be able to hide your stupid stock program without jailbreaking. It would take someone at Apple 20 minutes to allow this, but it will never happen because that guy does not exist because having that feature won't make them more money.
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I think you have a "strange emotional attachment" to some incredibly minor feature. And if you think said feature can be done in 20 minutes it would probably take something between 20 and 200 hours, because, unless you are a programmer and UI designer yourself, you have no idea what you're talking about.
 
elhungarian said:
So with Apple making WCDMA phones there is no doubt they are capable of making a CMDA phone, hopefully soon :)
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Exactly my thought. I think the Apple / AT&T relationship is going to be short-lived now that Apple has a CDMA phone.
 
China is bad news, no matter how you slice and dice it.

Apple should have avoided it like a plague.

Just my personal opinion.
 
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