China Unicom Help Apple Bring iPhone to China
In a surprising move that fulfills a long held promise from Apple, the iPhone will be going on sale in China through a company called China Unicom thanks to a deal struck recently. During the news conference to announce the deal, Unicom did not state which model of the iPhone will be available in the market, the largest in all of Asia.
According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, the phones are expected to go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year which fulfills a promise Apple had made long ago by promising that they would make the iPhone available to the Chinese market by the end of 2009. It was not clear previously how they would do this, but with the possible help of a governmental subsidy, Unicom will indeed bring the world famous technology to the people of China.
Fortunately for Apple, China is a huge untapped market for makers of digital communications devices and has over 700 million wireless subscribers already. That market alone could massively move Apples profits forward to a level as yet unseen.
The iPhones shipped to China will not be Wi-Fi enabled due to government communications regulations in that rapidly growing nation.