In a move designed to make even notorious Wi-Fi stripper Verizon seem liberal by comparison, China Mobile’s outstanding demand that Apple strip the iPhone of both Wi-Fi and 3G if they want to sell to the worlds largest carrier just got an uncomfortable shot of “maybe” via Apple Insider:
while there’s no concrete information to suggest Apple would agree to make such concessions, references to “ChinaBrick” discovered in betas of iPhone Software 3.0 leave room for debate.
Also at issue, China Mobile wants control of the regional App Store. Without 3G or Wi-Fi, would there even be a point?
And we’d joked about AT&T…
Commercial Times is raising the bar on crazy rumors by claiming Apple will release not just one, not even two, but a whopping three new iPhones this summer.
First would be the next-generation iPhone previous rumors have pointed to, with beefed up processors and features like the camera.
Second would be a throwback of sorts to the original iPhone, dropping HSPA 3G in favor of EDGE 2.75G to lower costs and smash what little umbrella was left competitors.
Third would be a special version to support a CDMA carrier in China, allowing Apple to penetrate that last, largest of markets. (And with the mere mention of CDMA, cue baseless Verizon rumors in 3… 2… ) [Note: Chinese CDMA bands won't work on Verizon -- hence baseless]
While TiPb has been on the next-gen bandwagon as a long as anyone, I have to admit the other two I’m not as sure about. Even though I mentioned the possibility of an EDGE-again iPhone on Twitter this weekend, Sacha Segan from PCMag was quick to point out a problem: AT&T is cutting EDGE capacity in favor of 3G. And like Giz says in the link below, Apple’s never been a retro-embracing company…
Would anyone be interested in an uber-cheap (free on contract, low EDGE data plan) version of the iPhone? Or is it Next Gen or nothing? And could we see a world where people are smuggling CDMA iPhones out of China?!
[via Gizmodo via Slashphone]
Ok, well Apple is really not selling $200 iTunes gift cards for only $2.60 so keep dreaming. But according to Music Ally Chinese “pirates” have hacked the algorithm that generates the iTunes gift cards and so now fake cards are flooding the market for as low as $2.60 in China. When we say flooding we literally mean flooding the Chinese market:
Apparently six months ago, a $200 card went for around 320 RMB (roughly $47), but the price has since plummeted to around 18 RMB ($2.60) as more sellers pile in.
With the iPhone 3G getting ready to make an appearance in China it should be interesting to see just how Apple responds to this. Apple will more than likely make a quick change to nullify the pirates ability to create these cards but it’s not like you can do away with the ones already in circulation as there is no easy way to decipher a bogus card from one that is legit (unless they have some super secret Apple wonder-ETL and ad-hoc query/number-crunching monster we don’t know about).
[Via Music Ally]
Aiya! There’s still no iPhone officially available in the world’s most populous country, the People’s Republic of China. Sure, Apple actually sells unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong and Taiwan in an attempt to lure the most affluent Chinese customers to their platform — and lets not forget the monstrous iPhone 2G black market — but absent homegrown carrier subsidies and support, it will never attain most-favored device status.
Previously the problem was China Mobile wanting to strip out the 3G and WiFi. The latest holdup? The App Store, according to Interfaxchina (via Ars). China Mobile doesn’t seem to like the idea of Apple running its own software service right on the phone, and would prefer to handle all that on their own end. Heh. So would AT&T, Rogers, Vodafone, and all the other oppressive, myopic, oligopolistic carriers around the world. The lure of the iPhone and its data-gulping customers let Apple one-inch-punch their way right through that tired old carcass, but China…?
China’s still wearing the iron vest of feature control furor.
So the raised platform is set, the combatants have taken their corners, and the rules remain: knockout or knockoff. Who’s going to win this battle?
We’re still considering these iPhone nano rumors to be way over on the far side of fetched, by they just keep on keeping on, so here’s the latest (via MacRumors):
DigiTimes highlights a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News stating that two chip manufacturers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation, are expected to receive chip orders for Apple’s rumored iPhone nano. The report states that orders would likely come in March, leading to a June release of the iPhone nano at the earliest. [...] Meanwhile, American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall believes that the iPhone nano will not initially be launched in the United States.
Marshall (via International Business Times) bases this claim on no word of AT&T testing an iPhone nano, and then leaps to the speculation that China would be a likely place to the launch the new device.
Aiya.
If this is not bizarre, I don’t know what is. Customers looking to purchase a iPhone 3G in China will soon be able to do so. Just a little catch though, minus the 3G and toss in the omission of WiFi.
China Mobile does not have a 3G network so I understand them asking Apple to disable 3G but going a step further asking to disabling WiFi as well?! That leaves all of the owners of the iPhone 3G (don’t forget to take away that 3G) with a slow 2G data connection. China Mobile might as well sell the iPhone 3G as a very nice paperweight to all of their customers. Exactly why China Mobile would disable WiFi is way beyond me.
Apple ships the iPhone all over the world, so it is highly doubtful that a hardware change would be made simply for China Mobile. So how would these features be disabled? Software… Which means potential customers could still turn to hackers to gain back access to at least WiFi. It would only be a matter of time…
(Via Gizmodo)
If it’s a day that ends in a “y”, then its likely the status of the Apple / China Mobile talks has changed! On again/off again seems to be on again, with reports now saying the obstacles have been hurdled, the chasm bridged, the bamboo curtain rolled up to let in some sun.
But can China Mobile beat competitor China Unicom, or even the massive gray market, to the punch?
Only time, and probably a bazillion more flip flops, will tell.
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China might just be getting itself some iPhones! Oh, sure, there are already tons of iPhones in China — almost a cottage industry of them — but this time we’re talking official from Apple, no unlock needed, spiffy new iPhone 3Gs. In China.
Not from China Mobile, who’s off again, off again relationship with Apple is well documented, but from competitor China Unicom. Maybe even by August!
Hen Hao!
A huge territory with a massive subscriber base, China was one of the few countries not announced by Apple as part of the 70+ at WWDC. If true, only Russia and a few others (looking at you, Antarctica!) would stand between Apple and total global domination… (or at least market presence!)
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During our last regularly scheduled podcast, we received an dispatch from Hong Kong written by one Janric. We already knew that there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 unlocked iPhones in China alone, and Janric confirmed that you can’t walk down a Hong Kong alley without tripping over somebody that has one:
I just want to comment out on the news about the 400K iPhones that are loose in china. I’m based in Hong Kong and it’s
no secret that you can buy the iphone here almost anywhere. The iPhone is such a hit here that I can almost see 1 iPhone per day (excluding mine ofcourse). In my office alone, there are about 5 unlocked iPhones in use.
Don’t believe it? Check out these photos that Janric snapped in an area of Causeway Bay – just a random two block stroll:
We’ve heard firsthand reports that it’s pretty much the same situation on the opposite side of the planet (Sweden) as well. So basically it’s as easy to get an unlocked iPhone in areas Apple hasn’t made official yet as it is to get a locked-up one in the official zones. If Apple wants to get their preferred revenue sharing going in these places, they need to step up the pace of worldwide releases.
Thanks, Janric!
