Unicom Will Bring iPhone to China…Isn’t It Already There?

Posted by Joel

(http://idannyb.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/iphone-china-unicom-11.jpg)

The big news last week was China Unicom’s announcement that it will officially launch the iPhone in China in Q4 2009. Is this really a big story?

First, let’s take a look at the deal highlights (from iPhonAsia blog):

3-year iPhone in China deal
Target iPhone launch date is sometime in Q4, 2009
China Unicom has pre-purchased a large quantity of iPhones. Prior rumors put the number at 5 million iPhones for $1.46 billion USD.
There will be subsidies that will reduce iPhone’s retail price for buyers who go on contract (“post pay” customers).
There will be multiple plan options with increased iPhone subsidies for buyers who choose expanded (more expensive) plan/service options.
There will be at least two different iPhone models (A1324 and A1325) specially built for the China market, with preloaded apps for Chinese consumers.
- Model A1324 will be based on the iPhone 3G with 8GB and 16GB choices
- Model A1325 will be based on iPhone 3Gs with 16GB and 32GB choices
Model A1324 has now completed its mandatory testing process and received its network access license.
Model iPhone A1325 is still in the testing/approval pipeline, but will almost certainly be approved by targeted launch date (TBA in Q4).

In a previous post from The China Observer, entitled “No Matter Whether You Call It 山寨, Shanzhai or Bandit Phone, This Is A Chinese Consumer Trend Worth Keeping An Eye On,” we saw that there is already a variety of locally produced iPhone copy-cats in China. However, what we did not look at is the fact that according to this May 2009 report, over 1 million legitimate iPhones entered the Chinese market through various channels. This is no surprise as based on observations and conversations in China, all it takes is giving the right Chinese techie a few Yuan and he or she can unlock an iPhone to make it usable in China. I agree with Ryan McLaughlin’s CNET post from July- entitled “iPhone finally coming to China, but who cares?”. This may be the first time the iPhone will legally be available for the Chinese marketplace, but up until this point anyone who really wanted an iPhone still had plenty of ways to get one.

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