Today’s the day — the iPhone officially launches in China on China Unicom. We say officially because it’s been available unofficially, in gray market form, since the original iPhone 2G was launched, and with winks and nudges via Apple’s unlocked sales in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
So will international sales tumble as the world’s biggest market can buy it at home? Will Chinese sales lag in favor of sticking with the unofficial versions from overseas or future Chinese versions that, you know, include Wi-Fi? Or will iPhone numbers just continue to grow, grow, grow?
TiPb, among others, has been hearing rumors for months now that Bell and Telus’ new GSM-based HSPA+ network would be up and running by November, and that the iPhone would follow along immediately there after. Nice to see some confirmation via Canadian stalwart, the Globe and Mail, however:
Bell announced Monday that it will launch national service in November on the $1-billion next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus, months ahead of schedule. The project extends the two companies’ existing third-generation (3G) networks to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation’s largest cellphone company.
No comments from any of the carriers or Apple, of course, and it remains to be seen what if any downward pressure competition in Canada — like in the UK — would put on iPhone pricing for consumers.
Our question: Bell and Telus will have HSPA+ but no EDGE (to our knowledge), so if an iPhone on Bell or Telus couldn’t get a 3G signal, what exactly would it fall back on? EVDO/CDMA is not an option…
Vodafone has just announced that they will begin selling Apple’s iPhone 3G and 3GS in the UK and Ireland in Early 2010.
This comes on the heels of a similar announcement by Orange UK, and means iPhone users across the pond will soon have 3 carriers battling it out for their love and data affection. And hopefully prices will reflect that.
So, UK readers, with O2, Orange, and Vodafone all on the table, who’re you going to go with?
Orange UK is set to start offering the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS according to ITProPortal. Previously exclusive to O2 in the UK, that deal is said to end on Oct. 9, clearing the way for some competition in the UK market. (At least beyond T-Mobile smuggling in a few units from Germany…)
Orange was previously the exclusive French iPhone provider until Bouygues-Telecom got into the game, and these latest deals seem to indicate Apple is serious about increasing their customer base…. at least outside the US. (Though it’s admittedly easier internationally where almost all providers are GSM and on similar frequencies).
Rumors about Orange getting the iPhone hit TiPb back in May, but there remain no details yet on when and how much. If you’re in the UK, however, let us know if you’re planning to make the jump to Orange when you can.
China Unicom, the second largest mobile carrier in the world’s largest mobile market, has reportedly bought 5 million iPhones from Apple as it makes ready to launch the device in September.
These won’t be the same iPhones sold in the rest of the world, however, as they’ll be using China-specific WCDMA radios, and will also lack Wi-Fi. Aiya. That, of course, leaves the door open for gray market iPhones — a staple in the nation since the original iPhone 2G launch in 2007 — to linger around and compete with the official, crippled version. (Insert Verizon joke here if you must).
Also changing according to the report is Apple’s share of the money. While they typically get 20-30% of profits, they’ll be making do with 1000-1100 Yuan per unit under terms of this deal (which allegedly may run as long as 3 years).
Either way, and long-in-the-making though it may be, it’s a huge deal for Apple and the iPhone in a huge market. Guess we’ll see what this does for Gartner’s numbers next year…
Updated: To address some of the comments, we edited out the URL field to protect the source, but it was not the public facing web address mentioned below. It was local intranet address. Of course, anything is fake-able, so we’ll just have to wait and see if — ever — Apple and Orange UK make an announcement… or not.
Seems strange to be writing about iPhone 3G launches when there are so many next-generation iPhone rumors flying around now, doesn’t it? Then again, there have been rumors about Orange UK getting the iPhone going back to the early days of iPhone 3G. Now, however, a helpful tipster has stumbled across what might be the first step towards confirmation:
iPhone 3G has shown up on internal systems at Orange UK (see the above pic), something that typically happens 6-8 weeks before a handset starts shipping on the network.
O2 has been exclusively carrying the iPhone in the UK since just after the original iPhone was first released, but competition is a Good Thing, right?
Any of our UK mates think iPhone on Orange is brilliant, yeah?
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…
Apple said they would release the iPhone 3G in over 70 countries this year. They started off with 22 way back on July 11, added another 22 in August 22, and now it looks like they’re planning on adding 29 more to the party starting September 26. According to Apple Insider, these include:
Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Russia, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Still no China, of course, along with Korea, or… Antarctica. Anyone else missing?
An iPhone 3G in your pocket, the wind in your hair, and 70+ markets to roam in?
WRONG!
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their handset users.
Thus Apple dropped the Steve Jobs Keynote BOOM! On the first round of iPhone Risk with news of over 70 regions signed on to carry the all new, all spectacular iPhone 3G. North America and much of Europe are currently set to get the next generation universe dent’er on July 11, with the rest “Coming Soon”/
Blanketing almost all the known continents (sorry Antarctica, see you come 4G!) and countries (with the huge gaping exception of China?), iPhone Risk, post WWDC edition, is now soundly under the “Epic Win” column, even as the scorecard strains under the map-bending load, which we include after the break.
