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

[reverie]

Turns out China Unicom denied the whole story. They don't have any agreement with Apple yet and are still in talks. So much for the 5 million pipedream!

 

[BriGuy20]

So wait, Apple is only getting paid $293 per phone, and then China is turning around and marking the phones up to $351 and $702 ???? (doesn't Apple get about $550 per phone in the US? $199 or $299 from the consumer and then $300 from AT&T?)

This is great for Apple... but let's see if China Unicom can turn around and sell those 5 million iPhones.

China isn't technically marking up the phones. When you sign the 2 year agreement here, that subsidizes the cost of the phone. It's why the 3GS iPhones cost $199 and $299 instead of, say, $499 and $599.

 

[saturniphone]

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.

Apparently you have not uncovered the seemingly obvious fact that the example I gave was just that -- an example. If you actually think that wanting any feature is somehow "strange" or in any way "emotional" then perhaps you've proven my point exactly. Doing something the non-Apple way must be "strange" and objectively desiring a set of features to coincide with a logical assessment of what one intends to do with a device to accomplish a set of goals for which that device was purchased must be beyond the comprehension of Apple who deals and sells entirely based on emotional reactions (hence every Apple commercial ever). Thanks for the confirmation.

And as an aside I am a programmer and predominantly a UI one at that. More than that I've spent time with the iPhone SDK too. So, as it turns out, I really know what I'm talking about.