Wireless

U.K. wireless carrier Orange just started selling the iPhone, and it is trumpeting first-day sales numbers for the device.

(Credit: Apple)

The carrier signed up 30,000 people with a new iPhone contract on Tuesday, its first day selling Apple's smartphone, according to a post on Twitter from a member of Orange's marketing department.

While 30,000 isn't necessarily a lot, compared to the "hundreds of thousands" of iPhones AT&T sold in its first weekend selling the iPhone 3GS in the United States, it's not bad for being the second carrier in a much smaller country, where the iPhone 3GS has been available for four months.

Until Tuesday, wireless provider O2 was the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United Kingdom. Orange currently has 16 million mobile customers, compared to O2's 22 million. Incidentally, Orange's experience as the second carrier of the device in a country would seem to make a decent case for Apple releasing the iPhone to more than one carrier in many other countries, including the United States.

The numbers were far more impressive than the iPhone's debut on China Unicom's network last week. China's first crack at selling the iPhone was by most accounts disappointing, with 5,000 units sold over the first four-day period.

Of course, China Unicom is dealing with factors Orange is not. Besides having to sell the iPhone without Wi-Fi connectivity, China has to contend with something U.K. and U.S. carriers largely do not: a vast market for iPhone knockoffs, or gray-market phones.

A saleswoman introduces Apple's iPhone to customers in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday.

(Credit: Zheng Duo/ColorChinaPhoto)

It could be the Year of the iPhone in China, as Apple officially started selling its iconic smartphone in the world's largest mobile market Friday night.

While China saw nothing near the frenzy of the first iPhone launch day here in the U.S., crowds there did honor the tradition of lining up for the phone many hours in advance at several locations. A few hundred people queued up in the rain and cold outside The Place shopping center in Beijing, for example. There, Zhi Xianzhong became the first person to get the iPhone from Apple partner China Unicom after waiting 7 hours and 40 minutes, according to China Daily.

As expected, China Unicom, the country's second largest telecom operator after China Mobile, is selling two versions of the iPhone in China under a three-year deal with Apple. But cost could prove to be a deterrent. Prices range from 4,999 yuan (about $732) for the 8GB 3G model to 6,999 yuan (about $1,025) for the 32GB 3GS phone (sans contract).

Consumers can get cheaper, cracked, gray-market iPhone models at local electronics stores or bring them in from other markets. But price isn't the only potential obstacle here. In accordance with Chinese government regulations, the handsets also lack a key feature--Wi-Fi capability, though reports say China Unicom hopes to offer Wi-Fi-enabled iPhones within a few months.

China Unicom is starting off by selling the iPhone in 285 cities. The carrier hopes to sell 5 million devices in three years, according to Chinese news reports, but the company wouldn't confirm that figure.

Apple is wasting little time in expanding the reach of the iPhone in China.

Just two weeks after signing a deal with China Unicom, Apple is once again in talks with rival China Mobile to offer the iPhone as well.

China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou confirmed that his company is in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Unlike in some countries, like the United States, where carrier agreements tend to be exclusive, the deal with China Unicom is nonexclusive.

This leaves Apple open to negotiate with as many carriers as it wants in that market. This is both good and bad for Apple.

China Mobile, China's No.1 carrier, has 141 million subscribers, the Journal reported. That's more than triple the subscribers of No. 2 carrier China Unicom. Obviously, getting the iPhone into the hands of China Mobile customers would have great economic and market-share benefits for Apple.

However, as the Journal points out, Apple would need to make some changes to the iPhone in order for it to work on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA wireless platform. The other option is to leave the iPhone as is and let it run on the carrier's slower 2G platform.

The Symbian Foundation and China Mobile have joined forces to promote the development of Symbian-based software for the Chinese operator's app store.

The partners will also promote the uptake of TD-SCDMA, the 3G standard developed in China as an alternative to WCDMA and other wireless interface technology. The collaboration agreement was announced Wednesday.

"The Symbian platform holds a strong position in China's mobile market, and we welcome the opportunity to build our relationship with the Symbian Foundation," Lu Xiang Dong, a vice president at China Mobile, said in a statement.

China Mobile, which is China's largest carrier with about 497 million subscribers, launched its Mobile Market app store in July. The alliance with the Symbian Foundation, the industry organization behind the Symbian open-source mobile operating system, aims to increase the number of Symbian developers contributing to the app store and broaden the range of software in it.

The first part of the program will involve the foundation streamlining its Symbian Signed accreditation process for mobile applications, Symbian Foundation founding director David Wood said.

"Symbian Signed will be simplified to make it easier for developers, by clarifying exactly what the tests will involve," Wood said. "Some of the tests were a bit subjective, in that (the same) apps could be submitted and pass or fail, which was frustrating for developers. We're moving away from style questions to address core functionality."

The Symbian Signed process will be added to China Mobile's submission process for Mobile Market, meaning that developers will be able to have their software tested, signed and approved in one go.

The signing process will also be more closely linked to Symbian's Horizon program, which assists developers in building applications for the mobile OS and helps them submit the software to app stores.

In addition, the foundation plans to launch a Chinese-language Symbian site, reflecting its user base. In August, 60 percent of developers submitting applications to be accredited by Symbian were Chinese, according to Wood.

Western operators are increasingly collaborating with Chinese companies. Telefonica, the international telecoms company behind O2 in the U.K., announced Monday a $1 billion share swap with China's No. 2 carrier, China Unicom.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Telefonica, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has announced a $1 billion share swap with Chinese operator China Unicom.

Under the agreement, announced Monday, each company will buy $1 billion in shares in the other company. In addition, the partners will cooperate in business areas. For example, they will jointly acquire infrastructure and equipment and jointly develop wireless service platforms.

"We are looking forward to enhancing the partnership and achieving a win-win situation for both parties," Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom's chief executive, said in a joint statement from the companies. "We believe that the partnership will help improve our capacities to provide extensive telecommunication and information application services."

The partners, which handle both fixed-line and mobile business, will jointly provide services to multinational enterprises. They also plan to cooperate on providing roaming coverage, conducting research and development, and mapping out best practices for management.

The deal will give the two companies a combined 550 million customers, according to the statement.

China Unicom, which was granted the license to operate 3G WCDMA technology by the Chinese government in January, has fixed-line and mobile operations in 31 provinces of China. The company is the second-largest mobile operator in China.

Madrid-based Telefonica, which owns U.K. operator O2, conducts the majority of its business in Europe and Latin America.

Both companies have 3G mobile businesses that use WCDMA technology.

Independent telecommunications analyst Dean Bubley said the deal will benefit both companies, giving them a foothold in each other's respective markets.

"China Unicom will be (especially) interested in Telefonica's reach into Latin America," he said.

"This (deal) will increase Telefonica's footprint in the Chinese market," Ovum analyst Charice Wang said. She noted that Telefonica had expressed an interest in China Netcom before that company merged with China Unicom in 2008.

Before the deal, Telefonica owned 5.38 percent of China Unicom's shares. After the transaction is completed, Telefonica will own about 8 percent of China Unicom's shares, while China Unicom will own around 0.88 percent of Telefonica's shares.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

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.

China Mobile introduced a new mobile platform Monday, and one of the presenting partners on hand has raised a few eyebrows.

Details of a Dell phone, reportedly called the Mini 3i, began to circulate on the Web almost immediately after being presented at the event, but Dell says it has not yet announced any smartphone for the China market.

A prototype of a Dell smartphone seen at a China Mobile event.

(Credit: Mobile.163.com)

"Dell was there supporting China Mobile as a development partner. We did not confirm or announce anything," said Dell spokesman Matt Parretta.

There was, however, a "proof of concept mobile device prototype" shown off at the event, Parretta said. That explains the photos, which depict a black, candybar-style handset that had a touch screen and was stamped with the Dell logo on the back.

Reports from the China Mobile event, which introduced the wireless operator's Android-based Open Mobile System, or OMS, say the Mini 3i was confined to operate on a 2G GSM network--no Wi-Fi access--but had a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a slot for a microSD card.

Industry observers and market analysts have been largely underwhelmed both by the idea of a Dell smartphone, and according to some who saw early prototypes, the execution of it as well.

Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple's iPhone and iPods, has agreed to compensate the family of a Chinese worker who apparently committed suicide over a missing prototype.

A Foxconn official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday the company will give Sun Danyong's parents a one-time payment of 360,000 yuan ($52,600), according to an Associated Press report. The company also agreed to pay an additional 30,000 yuan ($4,385) for each year either of the parents is alive, the AP said.

That figure is higher than that reported Monday by The New York Times, which stated that the family was receiving 300,000 Chinese renminbi, or about $44,000, and that his girlfriend was getting an Apple laptop.

Sun, who was 25, apparently jumped to his death on July 16 after allegedly losing a fourth-generation iPhone prototype that he was responsible for.

Apple expressed regret over Sun's death and said last week that it was "awaiting results of the investigations into his death."

Foxconn apparently suspended a security official after Sun's death, and the case was turned over to Chinese authorities to investigate. The security officer denied beating Sun but did acknowledge that he became "a little angry," according to The New York Times.

Foxconn General Manager James Lee said this wasn't the first time products given to Sun had gone missing, the New York Times reported. "Several times he had some products missing, then he got them back," Lee said. "We don't know who took the product, but it was at his stop."

Foxconn reportedly has not been able to locate the missing prototype.

China's telecommunications market is on track to generate $187 billion by 2014, fueled by mobile uptake in its rural areas and by 3G technology, according to Pyramid Research.

The latest annual report from the analyst firm estimated that the country's telecoms market generated $110 billion last year, "making it the second largest telecommunications services market in the Asia-Pacific region after Japan."

Pyramid estimates that the Chinese market will surpass Japan by 2014, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.8 percent between this year and then.

Daniel Yu, Pyramid Research analyst said: "China, like many emerging markets, is becoming an increasingly mobile market, adding 71.2 million mobile subscriptions in 2008, roughly 12 percent of all additions worldwide and second only to India's 113.3 million net additions."

Rising penetration of mobile services will push revenue growth from 58 percent at year-end 2009 to 80 percent at year-end 2014, with mobile services expected to account for more than 76 percent of total services revenue in the country by then.

The growth of China's mobile industry will weather the economic decline, driven by the rollout of 3G networks and extended coverage into rural areas. Yu highlighted China Mobile dedicating 30 percent of its total capital expenditure to 2G network expansion, and 70 percent of that allocation to the rural market.

Another analyst firm, Gartner, remarked last year that China's growth in broadband penetration will lead the next wave of growth in the region. However, Gartner's report also noted that service providers in the emerging markets will focus on increasing connections and will not be able to raise the level of additional services to match that of mature markets.

Since the awarding of the country's 3G licenses in January, China's operators have been working to accelerate roll out of the faster networks. This is expected to spark a new wave of 3G investments in the market, although China's delay to award the licenses was said to have stalled investment, as carriers remained cautious.

Last year, China Mobile, the largest telco in China, reportedly faced obstacles in its efforts to win rights to , in part because its 3G network was not yet ready.

Victoria Ho of ZDNet Asia reported from Singapore.