Apple have finally released an iPhone in China. When we say iPhone, we mean the term loosely, because it doesn’t have WifI (the Chinese government had restricted Wifi during the time the iPhone was been developed, however the restriction has now been lifted. Oops). It seems like a little bit of a logistical mess up. Surely, and perhaps we are been a bit too naive, but couldn’t they now just take regular iPhones, put Chinese mandarin or Cantonese on them and load the planes destined for China?
Here’s what Associated Press said on the matter:
Unicom’s iPhones lack WiFi because it was temporarily banned by Beijing, which was promoting a rival Chinese system, according to BDA. The ban was relaxed in May after manufacturing had begun.
A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, said the company hopes to have WiFi in the next batch of phones.
“We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year,” Yi said.
Ironically, due to the lack of Wifi and high price ($730 – $1,025) Apple are now competing with themselves. It appears as though most sensible Chinese will purchase an iPhone from abroad (or ask around at the local market) and pick up a 3GS, with Wifi and Video and save a 5th on official pricing. Some very smart number crunching people have hinted there could be as many 2 million “bootleg” iPhones in operation already. If that’s true, that is a lot of lost revenue.