China Unicom Web Site Posts iPhone Information, Launching Soon?

[happydude]

isn't it kinda silly to guess that WIFI would be taken off. it's not that china restricts internet access itself, it is what you can access on the internet that is restricted, right? so taking wifi off wouldn't make any sense. and since another poster has said how wifi is in starbucks, etc. i'd guess wifi will be on the iphone.

 

[cleanup]

There isn't really a "Big Dog" in China right now.
Mostly it's a bunch of small Chinese companies fighting against Motorola and the like.
Haven't really seen Samsung and LG there though.
But even if it does come to China, it is doubtful it will gain any market share. (IMO)
If you've ever been to China, they think that a camera phone is amazing, especially when it's above a megapixel.
If you look at the average wages in China, it's even more depressing.

Are you kidding me? Where did you visit? If you were in Beijing for the olympics, or Shanghai, certainly you saw the outrageous phones some people have over there. Plenty of people have already imported iPhones. Beyond that, high-end Sony Ericssons are popular, as are Dopods (HTCs), high-end Nokias, Samsungs, etc.

For most of the big-city dwellers in China, a nice phone is more important than a nice apartment or good food.

Many of you obviously have no idea of the sophistication in urban China.

It's not all just bicycles and little red books you know.

Well put.

 

[zxcvb]

obviously WIFI function has been cut off by China's government.

I never experienced wifi and internet cut-off or any website banning when I was on business trip in China Dec 2008. the whole gov-cutting-off-internet things are all malicious rumor started by bunch of jealous losers.

 

[cleanup]

I never experienced wifi and internet cut-off or any website banning when I was on business trip in China Dec 2008. the whole gov-cutting-off-internet things are all malicious rumor started by bunch of jealous losers.

I lived in China for two years. Some things are most certainly blocked. Often Google Images goes down. Plenty of Wikipedia articles are blocked. Entire blogging sites are unaccessible. But most things are still free for access.

Things may have changed since 2007, though, when I left.

 

[cameronjpu]

I saw that as well. I honestly think that China has been waging war because they know there is a new iPhone and want the newest technology , instead of bringing in the "older" model iPhones to the table.
Maybe they are going to wait to finish the deal once the new iPhone emerges and then offer the 3G iPhone as well.... Who knows....

That would really make Apple's life difficult. The production ramp that would be required to cover such a huge new market, and one that is more unknown than most, would be really tricky. Basically if they plan to wait for the V3 iPhone, I guess they'd either have to really pay up, or plan to wait until ALL the other markets are satisfied with supply.

If China is coming on board, there will be no way to keep the production spike secret, that's for sure.

 

[sjo]

That would really make Apple's life difficult. The production ramp that would be required to cover such a huge new market, and one that is more unknown than most, would be really tricky. Basically if they plan to wait for the V3 iPhone, I guess they'd either have to really pay up, or plan to wait until ALL the other markets are satisfied with supply.

If China is coming on board, there will be no way to keep the production spike secret, that's for sure.

no problems there. in india, a similarly huge new market, apple managed to sell a mere 11,000 phones. to put that in context, over 10,000 mobile phones are sold in india every hour...

 

[joelypolly]

WiFi will most likely be disabled

WiFi will most likely be disabled on the iPhone as all phones that sell officially here don't have WiFi functionality. This is just how phones are sold here in China and it may or may not change with the introduction of the iPhone.

 

[Xibalba]

China's average consumer has always been way ahead technologically speaking in the mobile phone market. i, as others have said, do believe as well that the info is a placeholder and they will be getting the newest iphone technology that the government and carrier will allow.

while the government has a significant filter on all communications from television to internet, WiFi works just fine there - even back in 2005 on my month-long business trip.

and yes, this would be a significant boost to apple revenue and the ever-rapidly expanding iphone user base.

 

[Xibalba]

I never experienced wifi and internet cut-off or any website banning when I was on business trip in China Dec 2008. the whole gov-cutting-off-internet things are all malicious rumor started by bunch of jealous losers.

let's hope that is sarcasm as there is definitely a significant amount of websites and television programs that are heavily censored - or even completely blocked in China. not sure what sites you browsed on your trip but IP filtering exists in China - that there is no debate. there is a lot of internet out there though...

 

[sh.sean]

Hi, let me put some facts about Mobile carriers market and iphone situation in China:

1) Wifi hot spot is everywhere in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai. However it is true that EVERY smartphone officially sold in China will be disabled Wifi function. This is requested by the government.

2) 3G is coming very soon in China. But different carriers adopted different 3G standards. The No. 1 carrier China Mobile (more than 70% market share, 140 million subscribers!) has a major obstacle taking iphone -- its 3G standard (TDSCDMA) won't work on iphone! So will Apple allow a heavily crippled iphone (no wifi, no 3G) to be sold in China? I doubt.

3) Iphone price won't be a problem. There are plenty of hi-end phones doing well in the market, all around iphone's price point(4000 RMB, 600 dollars). People love iphone here, it is not only a gadget but also a symbol of status.

 

[175170]

I am curious why people seem to think that the market in China for the iPhone would at all be interested in an outdated model?

Many of you obviously have no idea of the sophistication in urban China.

It's not all just bicycles and little red books you know.

Ah, trust me, I go there often.
Who have you seen with an iPod in China?
When I went to China to get a charger for my iPod Touch, they goggled at my iPod Touch like it was amazing.
Probably the first one they touched, and the last one too.
No offense meant of course.
But the thing is that there are a few rich people in China.
And those rich people are very rich.
No way would the middle class be able to afford an iPhone.
The only customers in China would be those CEOs strutting around.
Oh, and those Chinese gangsters in the old Chinese movies.
Like the one with the round sunglasses.
Imagine gangsters with iPhones.
Remote detonation, iFart.

 

[175170]

I lived in China for two years. Some things are most certainly blocked. Often Google Images goes down. Plenty of Wikipedia articles are blocked. Entire blogging sites are unaccessible. But most things are still free for access.

Things may have changed since 2007, though, when I left.

It's actually gotten worse.

I never experienced wifi and internet cut-off or any website banning when I was on business trip in China Dec 2008. the whole gov-cutting-off-internet things are all malicious rumor started by bunch of jealous losers.

I have no idea what you're talking about here.
YouTube is often blocked, and the whole iTunes store was blocked for about 3 months because it was selling the album "Free Tibet".
And BlogSpot is usually blocked too.

 

[kockgunner]

if this takes off in china, apple will be the number one mobile phone seller in the world

Word. Too bad this deal was made 1 year after the fact. I'm sure it will still get popular though.

 

[sh.sean]

Ah, trust me, I go there often.
Who have you seen with an iPod in China?
When I went to China to get a charger for my iPod Touch, they goggled at my iPod Touch like it was amazing.
Probably the first one they touched, and the last one too.
No offense meant of course.
But the thing is that there are a few rich people in China.
And those rich people are very rich.
No way would the middle class be able to afford an iPhone.
The only customers in China would be those CEOs strutting around.
Oh, and those Chinese gangsters in the old Chinese movies.
Like the one with the round sunglasses.
Imagine gangsters with iPhones.
Remote detonation, iFart.

Where have you been? Try the subway at Shanghai, you will probably see people using iphones and ipods almost every time you being on the train. And rich people usually don't take metro!

 

[tracyneil]

Ah, trust me, I go there often.
Who have you seen with an iPod in China?
When I went to China to get a charger for my iPod Touch, they goggled at my iPod Touch like it was amazing.
Probably the first one they touched, and the last one too.
No offense meant of course.
But the thing is that there are a few rich people in China.
And those rich people are very rich.
No way would the middle class be able to afford an iPhone.
The only customers in China would be those CEOs strutting around.
Oh, and those Chinese gangsters in the old Chinese movies.
Like the one with the round sunglasses.
Imagine gangsters with iPhones.
Remote detonation, iFart.

http://www.weiphone.com/

 

[thelookingglass]

Where have you been? Try the subway at Shanghai, you will probably see people using iphones and ipods almost every time you being on the train. And rich people usually don't take metro!

I agree. iPhones are everywhere in China these days.

Regarding the WIFI issue, it's one thing to not OFFICIALLY sell phones with WIFI capabilities. I'm sure most of the iPhones purchased in China, even after China Unicom's official launch, will be of the UNOFFICIAL variety. (Reminds me of WII/PS3 purchases here ... few people buy OFFICIALLY sold units; almost everyone has a unit that's been modified to play copied games).

 

[corywoolf]

Mr Fusion:
"There is no market in China. They assemble it all and probably get enough "freebies" off the line to satisfy the few who want Apple products.

Smug CEO's selling designer products at ridiculously high markups is a SoCal and European market, not the Chinese."

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/6977933/

 

[burro]

i WANT a KEYBOARD!!!

I sure HOPE the iPhone 3.0 SDK lets developers give us BT and/or wired ability to enter and edit text with a (fold-up, e.g.) keyboard.

anyone have a word on that?

Until then, for me, it is just a toy.

 

[iSamurai]

obviously WIFI function has been cut off by China's government.

adding onto that, will WIFI really breach national security??? more like it's gonna be used for p**n. it's ridiculous if there's no WIFI.

...and if it's the carrier that's disabling WIFI so that users must pay more than ever... crazy. on the other hand, some guy in china will probably hack the phone to patch WIFI if that's the case. <__< it'd be interesting to see if that'll happen.

3. SMS will be disabled or strictly monitored.

hahahahaha have you ever been to China mate? how 'bout voice calls are disabled too! SMSes are monitored but I don't think you can call a mobile cellular device a "phone" anymore if there's not even an SMS feature lol. we're not back in the old days when phones are bricks...

 

[Eraserhead]

WiFi will most likely be disabled on the iPhone as all phones that sell officially here don't have WiFi functionality. This is just how phones are sold here in China and it may or may not change with the introduction of the iPhone.

Are you sure it isn't the carrier trying to make more money? Given the number of WiFi hotspots that seems likely.

Where have you been? Try the subway at Shanghai, you will probably see people using iphones and ipods almost every time you being on the train. And rich people usually don't take metro!

It depends what you mean by rich, the rich only don't take the metro in the US. In other countries well off people take public transport a lot more, in London for example you see bankers on the Tube. I'm sure though that the really rich people don't use the metro in Shanghai.

Ah, trust me, I go there often.
Who have you seen with an iPod in China?
When I went to China to get a charger for my iPod Touch, they goggled at my iPod Touch like it was amazing.
Probably the first one they touched, and the last one too.
No offense meant of course.
But the thing is that there are a few rich people in China.
And those rich people are very rich.
No way would the middle class be able to afford an iPhone.
The only customers in China would be those CEOs strutting around.
Oh, and those Chinese gangsters in the old Chinese movies.
Like the one with the round sunglasses.
Imagine gangsters with iPhones.
Remote detonation, iFart.

I don't imagine anyone is saying the market for iPhone is more than 1-2% in China. And people get impressed by the iPhone in all sorts of places - even in fully first world countries like New Zealand.

 

[rekhyt]

Good to hear, I don't see why it took this long to arrive there in the first place.

So they are only getting the 2G version, rather then the 3G's??

I can't really tell if it's the 2 or the 3. $228 sounds like a great price for me, if you don't have to jailbreak it. ... Let's see how much the "plan" costs. :\

Update: ... No Wifi? o.0 Noooooooo!

Update again: :\ It says the estimate for it going to the market is July 2008. Possible typo, or just... Delayed stuff?

 

[Mackan]

Communist China. I wish Apple could leave that market alone.

 

[yongxiaofeng]

Ah, trust me, I go there often.
Who have you seen with an iPod in China?
When I went to China to get a charger for my iPod Touch, they goggled at my iPod Touch like it was amazing.
Probably the first one they touched, and the last one too.
No offense meant of course.
But the thing is that there are a few rich people in China.
And those rich people are very rich.
No way would the middle class be able to afford an iPhone.
The only customers in China would be those CEOs strutting around.
Oh, and those Chinese gangsters in the old Chinese movies.
Like the one with the round sunglasses.
Imagine gangsters with iPhones.
Remote detonation, iFart.

seems you are interested in something else
NOT sure which part of china did you went to.
I have got my first iPod when I was in high school.
And I have to say I am not belong to rich people class,
because I have to work my ass off in Canada to earn my tripled international student rate tuition.
And I am paying everything by myself, because my famliy could not support me anymore.
I can only thing you do not know much, and you certainly misunderstood chinese people when you were in China

 

[yongxiaofeng]

It's actually gotten worse.


I have no idea what you're talking about here.
YouTube is often blocked, and the whole iTunes store was blocked for about 3 months because it was selling the album "Free Tibet".
And BlogSpot is usually blocked too.

Don't want get into the Tibet thing, but the timing when they released the album was very good though. It was right before the olympic started.
yeah we even made a website called, http://www.stevejobsyousuck.com

come to check out....

 

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

This story on Engadget this morning claims that China Unicom is now confirmed to have the iPhone and word on the street is that it has a launch date for May 17th.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/25/unicom-confirmed-as-chinese-iphone-provider/

So they are going to release the current 3g iPhone over there late May and then Apple release a new iPhone (possibly) a month later? Doesn't make much sense. You think China, for as technologically advanced as they are, would hold off on the deal for new, faster hardware in June. Unless (1) Apple is planning on releasing a new model in May so that everyone who's gonna buy one will be already set and ready to go when 3.0 is finally released or...(2) There isn't going to be a new model this time around or...(3) China won't get the new model immediately, if one is in fact released or....or....or....



Your thoughts?