Disqus
The iPhone is coming to China. It’s inevitable that Apple will one day crack the massive Chinese mobile phone market and be granted permission to sell the iPhone through one of the country’s state-owned wireless carriers. A while back, we saw leaked photos of a Chinese iPhone bearing Chinese branding and lacking any WiFi support. Last week, we heard shadowy whispers hinting at a near-term release of a Chinese-specific iPhone on China Unicom, China’s second-largest (by subscriber count) wireless carrier. Then, China Unicom shot back with a denial that the carrier had purchased some 5 million WiFi-less iPhones for distribution in Carrefour stores throughout China. But, it seems the China Unicom iPhone is a done deal. Despite the official denials, an employee for Carrefour has confirmed to JLM Pacific Epoch that the mobile phone distributor has signed an agreement to peddle Apple’s latest wares on China Unicom’s behalf.
The Carrefour employee expects to see fellow Chinese countrymen playing with a native iPhone in late August. That launch window jibes well with a previous report that had Carrefour stores kicking off iPhone sales in September.
Of course, we’ll have to wait for official word from Apple and China Unicom before marking this rumor as fact.
[Via: JLMPE]
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
