China to get an iPhone without Wi-Fi?
Apple may have blinked first in the ongoing battle with the Chinese government to allow the company to sell a Wi-Fi-enabled iPhone in that country.
(Credit:
Apple)
The back-and-forth battle between Apple and China's Ministry of Industry and Information may be coming to a close. According to a BusinessWeek report, Apple has applied for a Network Access License that would allow the company to begin selling the iPhone without Wi-Fi.
In typical fashion, Apple has reportedly been hard-nosed in negotiations with the Chinese government over the iPhone. However, the government has been just as hard-nosed, refusing to allow Apple to sell the Wi-Fi-enabled phone in China.
AppleInsider guesstimates that the approval process for the iPhone would take four to six months, making a potential launch date no later than January 2010.
Of course, the iPhone is being used in many countries where it is not officially sold, China being one of them. The ability to unlock the phones and use them on any compatible network has made the iPhone popular worldwide.
Bringing a Chinese company, speculated to be China Unicom, on board as an official carrier would enable Apple to open the iPhone to a huge market of potential growth. It's unclear what the lack of Wi-Fi will do for the popularity of the smartphone, but it's obviously a concession that Apple felt was worth making.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple. 
Unless I'm missing something.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10163185-37.html
Still doesn't make it un-lame. It would be cool if they would stand up as an American company to say NO to Chinese authoritarian rule-craziness. But money talks...
A question of implementation: could they just do a small software tweak to disable the wifi chip on a system root level? Then all the tech-savvy chinafolk could just unlock it and get the wifi...
When you get a wifi signal, within 200 feet or so there will be a wireless AP, switch, whatever, from that piece of hardware and beyond is all wired.
In other words, you access the same network with wifi, which in this case means the government controlled internet.
If it was a matter of encryption, they could just insist that encryption not be supported.
Why do they do this? Probably because like every other country and company, they are technically illiterate.
hard wire allows easy authentication - its your wire in yor house, you are responsible. The govt will know who to shoot. If anybody can log on anywhere with minimal authentication starbuck style, or with easily spoofed authetication, who will you round up for execution if some embassing pitures of the last execution hit the net?
Think, then type.
Sorry but that's not really correct.
1. China (years ago) WAS going to require all WiFi devices sold in China to support the WAPI standard, but after stiff opposition from the US government and industry, they agreed to drop this requirement:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/92590/China_agrees_to_drop_WAPI_standard
2. Since then, WAPI has been revised and submitted to the ISO for consideration as an open standard. The ISO so far has rejected WAPI twice due to secrecy concerns, but after even more revisions it looks like WAPI will indeed become an international standard:
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=104668
There is no evidence that WAPI will use "weak encryption" or that it can be "tapped by the government".
3. Indeed the vast majority of WiFi devices in China today are *not* WAPI compliant. Just walk to any electronics store in Beijing or Shanghai...
4. Until recently China disallowed all mobile phones from having ANY non-telephony wireless (be it WiFi *or* WAPI). It looks like the first wireless mobile phones approved for China (notably the Motorola A3100) will have WAPI *and* WiFi. While ease of surveillance certainly was a factor, the primary reason seems to be to protect telecoms revenue from VOIP calls. (E.g., various ISPs also banned Skype, etc., since VOIP was eating their lunch).
5. The issue with the iPhone is more likely the MIIT wants to see devices supporting both standards. Part of the reason is the Chinese telecoms are deploying a lot of wireless gear supporting WAPI as they've invested a lot of money in it. The Chinese however are also mindful of the trade war that could develop if they push WAPI too hard.
Boy cnet's budget, for reporters must be really low
This "post a headline, but let your readers do the reporting" approach strikes me as a new low that I hope doesn't catch on !
http://www.chinastakes.com/2009/6/apples-slow-boat-to-china-gains-speed-as-iphone-gains-block-buster-consumer-acceptance.html
- by bcuster August 28, 2009 10:01 PM PDT
- WHY? I agree- I want an explanation for why Apple is being asked to sell a wifi disabled iphone in China.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(19 Comments)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.