Is iPhone Wi-Fi coming to China?
It would appear as if the Chinese government has rethought the concept of Wi-Fi on the Chinese version of the iPhone, and that Wi-Fi will be available in China on the Apple handset sooner than later.
China Unicom Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing, head of the only wireless provider now selling the iPhone in China, says that his company is working with Apple to add the Wi-Fi feature to the Chinese iPhone as quickly as possible. Further, Chang said that once Wi-Fi was available on the Apple handset in China, he would consider making more 3G broadband available to current iPhone owners in order to make up for the lack of Wi-Fi on their phones, according to a Wall Street Journal story. Although no specific timetable was discussed, Chang made it clear that he expected iPhone Wi-Fi to make its appearance in China quickly.
Chang also discussed iPhone pricing and wireless network improvements with reporters. He said that the price of the iPhone in China, once service contracts are taken into consideration, was just about equal to pricing elsewhere in the world, although he would like to see lower prices. This statement is somewhat disingenuous, since it is still cheaper to buy an iPhone on the gray market, brought in from places like Hong Kong, than it is to purchase the official Chinese version of the phone, plus the gray market phones have Wi-Fi already. It is possible that China Unicom has been facing a lot of pressure in the marketplace from these gray market handsets.
Unicom is also faced with pressure from its larger wireless rival, China Mobile, who continues to say that they are in talks to become the second iPhone provider in China. Chang, therefore, was quick to point out that his company was continuing to improve its wireless network. Chang said, “This year our overall investment will clearly decrease from last year’s level. But 3G development remains our investment priority for 2010, we will absolutely not slow the pace of 3G development.” Thus goes the life of a Chinese capitalist in Communist China.
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March 10th, 2010
I am glad to know that now iPhone WiFi is coming to China.I think its an amazing new for all iPhone lovers in China.There is good information in this post.I did not know eve this much information about China Unicom.