Get Smart about Business Spending
Apple lands deal to sell iPhone in China
The iPhone now has an official ticket to China.
Mobile phone operator China Unicom plans to start selling two versions of the iPhone in China in the fourth quarter of 2009, under a three-year deal, an Apple representative confirmed Friday morning.
China Unicom didn't say what it will charge for the iPhones or what the service plan will include, but it does plan to keep the price modest by offering subsidies to customers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal earlier Friday. The agreement does not include revenue sharing, the newspaper said.
In accordance with Chinese regulations, the iPhones will be sold with their Wi-Fi function disabled, the Journal reported.
The news was, by and large, expected. Reports of an impending deal had been circulating for some time now. And at least as far back as March, China Unicom--the country's second largest mobile operator--had been posting iPhone photos and specifications on its Web site. Apple had also been in on-again, off-again talks with the country's largest carrier, China Mobile.
Apple's iPhone has been in widespread use in China for a number of years as people brought the gadget into the country from markets where it was available.
China Unicom also said Friday that its 3G network will launch commercially at the end of September, according to the Journal.
UBS analyst Maynard Um said in a research note Friday that the "formal announcement with specific timing of a launch may be viewed as a modest positive," although it's "still difficult to gauge the level of potential demand." For Apple, Um said, international expansion and partnerships with new wireless operators are central to the company maintaining its iPhone and earnings momentum.
CNET News contributor Jim Dalrymple provided reporting for this story.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
http://iphone.click2creation.com/2009/07/jailbreaking-iphone-could-pose-threat-to-national-security-apple-claims/
Oh, but it's okay to sell that same phone to the Chinese? It's not like they don't have a long history with malicious hacking. I'm sure they won't jailbreak their iPhones. I'm sure they pose no risk.
Ha!
You can't have it both ways Apple. You cannot spout your crap about a jailbroken iPhone being a national security risk and sell that same phone to the Chinese. So admit it, you were lying through your teeth.
The iPhone is made and designed by chinese firms (ok the cute plastic box was designed by crApple), so why don't they just come up with something better on their own?
By the way wasn't crApple's marketing focused on making the iPhone look like it is "too sophisticated" for export becuase it is just "so damn advanced it can be used in a weapon? :-)
I used to work there and I have never met a more vicious, underhanded, devious group of liars and illiterates in any american company before. (and that is saying a lot)
They could not contain their hateful rage when anyone who was not white got any kind of work assigned to them or happened to get the smallest part in their over-hyped "super secret" projects.
Asians and other minorities are typically isolated in remote offices and are left there to rot until they are either fed up and quit or they are "laid off".
I used to work there in their graphics and Colorsync group, and I have never met a more useless, vicious, underhanded, devious group of liars and illiterates in any american company before. (and that is saying a lot)
They could not contain their hateful rage when anyone who was not white got any kind of work assigned to them or happened to get the smallest part in their over-hyped "super secret" projects.
Asians and other minorities are typically isolated in remote offices and are left there to rot until they are either fed up and quit or they are "laid off".
considering that the chinese spend hours on the internet and apple plan to disable the wi fi function the chinese are better off just buying the clone instead.
Also there is no problem at all finding an original with wi-fi and as i have seen both I would rather have the clone,
Actually i would not have anything of apple even if it was free -they are just a bunch of money grabbing liars and care nothing about their customers.
Yes they do have clones in china although a little more than 15 USD and you can get them with wi-fi too,
considering that the chinese spend hours on the internet and apple plan to disable the wi fi function the chinese are better off just buying the clone instead."
@cumberlandsausage--What part of "In accordance with Chinese regulations, the iPhones will be sold with their Wi-Fi function disabled, the Journal reported." does not compute?? China required the WiFi to be disabled.
I lived in China for over 5 years. They are some of the most racist people on this planet. I guarantee that whatever racism you have experienced in America, its nothing compared to the way Chinese people treat foreigners or even Chinese minorities. They are completely unconcerned with any racism in silicon valley.
Anything for a dime, eh $teve?
if the dollar signs are the only thing you have a problem with, why even bother commenting? I believe what Joetesta70 was trying to suggest was that Steve Jobs is greedy: breaking into the chineese market to make money, no matter how immoral the restrictions might be. Like allowing the Chineese Government to block access to the wealth of information and ideas on the internet, or allowing the Chineese government to crack down on dissidents by providing a tracking mechanism. All for profit. The moral implications are there. Apple is, in essence, allowing the Chineese government to use them for propaganda. the chineese gov't will be able to point to the Iphone and make the arguement that since they allowed it, they are taking care of their people and giving them freedoms. All while still controlling the ability to see otherwise from outside the country.
So, in that respect, the dollar signs are being used quite well. As far as your point about Jobs being deserving of money for revolutionizing an industry...well, really he just deserves money from making those technologies popular (I don't really believe that Apple came up with the touch screen, the internet, the cell phone, the smartphone, internet on a phone, etc---they just made it popular). That said, your arguement falls flat, and to use "Drug Lord" instead of Steve Jobs shows just how dumb your statement is: "Does the Drug Lord not deserve the money he's made after a lifetime of work and revolutionizing many parts of an entire industry, if not the day-to-day life of millions to billions of people." See, ohh, and it looks like you are the one whining, he was just making a point.
ohh sure, puttin dollar signs in Micro$oft is ok, while using them in $teve Job$ is almost like murder. Dea lwith it double standards boy.
Every company is out to make as much money as possible, including Microsoft and Apple. That doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just business. And they are hardly the only companies doing business in China.
@kaibelf
if the dollar signs are the only thing you have a problem with, why even bother commenting? I believe what Joetesta70 was trying to suggest was that Steve Jobs is greedy: breaking into the chineese market to make money, no matter how immoral the restrictions might be. Like allowing the Chineese Government to block access to the wealth of information and ideas on the internet, or allowing the Chineese government to crack down on dissidents by providing a tracking mechanism."
I'm sorry, but have you fallen off the common sense wagon?? Somehow you try to make an example of Apple, like somehow they are the only ones making a profit in China. You should really step back and realize that despite the Chinese government, there are a lot of companies bending hand over foot to get into the Chinese market. Why?? I can give you 1.5 billion reasons. Maybe one day people will hold the Chinese government accountable for their actions, which (for some reason), you try to put on Apple. Until then, it is a world market and everyone wants their piece of the pie. Get over it "joetesta70" and "cgallaway".
@kaibelf
if the dollar signs are the only thing you have a problem with, why even bother commenting? I believe what Joetesta70 was trying to suggest was that Steve Jobs is greedy: breaking into the chineese market to make money, no matter how immoral the restrictions might be. Like allowing the Chineese Government to block access to the wealth of information and ideas on the internet, or allowing the Chineese government to crack down on dissidents by providing a tracking mechanism."
I'm sorry, but have you fallen off the common sense wagon?? Somehow you try to make an example of Apple, like somehow they are the only ones making a profit in China. You should really step back and realize that despite the Chinese government, there are a lot of companies bending hand over foot to get into the Chinese market. Why?? I can give you 1.5 billion reasons. Maybe one day people will hold the Chinese government accountable for their actions, which (for some reason), you try to put on Apple. Until then, it is a world market and everyone wants their piece of the pie. Get over it "joetesta70" and "cgallaway".
I can see the commercials now;
There is a lot the government can keep you from doing on the Iphone. For instance, if you want the government to block websites from the united states, there's an app for that. Or, if you want the government to block your ability to get information from news sources outside of China, there's an app for that, too. There's even an app so the government can eavesdrop on the calls to and from your family members who've defected to places outside of China. And it's only on the Iphone.
Wonder if the network will hold out.?You know how much the chinese love thier videos and internet..Good luck supporting the network when you just rolled out 3G
I want an explanation for why Apple is being asked to sell a wifi disabled iphone in China.
I live in Shanghai, and have lived in China for two years, and this makes no sense. Everyone and their dog buys cell phones from China Mobile/Unicom/Telecom with wifi (working just fine) and uses the wifi at cafes and bars all over the country!
All censorship, of which there is a somewhat inflated view in the west, is done from the ISP or some more fundamental source- not from the device itself.
I doesn't make any sense to me that Apple would be asked to sell the iphone without wifi. I use wifi on my Nokia E63 that I bought from China Mobile all the time!
An explanation (hint, hint, Mr. Author) would be much appreciated.
I would also like to point out two relevant factors that may affect this:
a) There are around 8-10 million new mobile phones in Chine each month
b) China Unicom main non-chinese shareholder is
Telefonica, one of the biggest and most successful Telecom Operators of the world
c)) Apple is changing the model of distribution
Manuel Nó
http://manuelno.wordpress.com/
- by tvnewswatch August 30, 2009 11:06 PM PDT
- As regards why Apple has removed its WiFi capability is more due to the current regs set by the China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology [MIIT] in China which have set WAPI as the standard [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Authentication_and_Privacy_Infrastructure ]. Wi-Fi enabled handsets to be sold in China must also support the country's home-grown WAPI wireless networking standards. Of course WiFi phones sold in the west will sometimes work here, but not always. Apple had to win approval from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in providing a handset which does not receive Wi-Fi signals. Apple agreed to remove it in order to get around Beijing's restrictions on handsets with high-speed Internet capability.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(35 Comments)However, a second model has been submitted to China's Telecommunication Tech Labs for testing that is capable of receiving both Wi-Fi and WAPI, the Chinese standard for wireless networks. This may come in the future as China is believed to be relaxing the rules in WiFi. The Shanghai Daily reported in June that MIIT were looking at such possibilities as early as June this year. But while construction of networks and buildings is fast in China, policy can take a while to change.
As for rights and wrongs of trading and doing business in China, that debate is endless and has no simple answer. Too many companies are tied into China's economy, from Coca Cola to McDonalds and KFC, from Google to Yahoo and Microsoft. There is hardly a western company not represented here.