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Like the headline suggests, the iPhone is not selling very well in China. Despite reports that Chinese iPhone carrier China Unicom is satisfied with iPhones so far, new reports indicate that the iPhone is floundering behind The Great Wall. China’s largest online retailer, Taobao.com, has apparently sold just five China Unicom iPhones in the past couple weeks. Compared to other markets that see thousands of iPhones sold every month, China Unicom’s iPhone has so far failed to perform.
China Unicom sells iPhones directly, so the total number of iPhones sold recently are probably higher than five iPhones per every two weeks. Still, many flock to the Taobao.com website to buy gadgets like cellphones in China, which makes it a good barometer for overall iPhone sales.
The problem? First, there’s the prohibitively high cost of buying a China Unicom iPhone. The 32GB iPhone 3GS costs $1,024 with no contract. You can pick up the same phone in Hong Kong for $800. Then there’s the fact that iPhones are smuggled into China and sold on the gray-market all the time. To make matters worse, these “gray” iPhones are fully functional, making them more appealing than China Unicom’s WiFi-less iPhones.
China Unicom could really use a cheaper, WiFi-enabled iPhone.
[Via: PCWorld]
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...
