HONG KONG - China Unicom officially announced on Friday that a three-year deal has been struck with Apple to bring their beloved iPhone to the largest cellphone market on Planet Earth. Boasting over 140 million subscribers, China Unicom has agreed to purchase 5 million iPhones for the sum of $1.46 billion. While the deal is certainly an epic coup for the country's second-largest mobile phone operator, it represents a ginormous milestone for Apple.
China Unicom Chairman and Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing said at a news briefing that the company plans to offer subsidies to customers who buy the handset, lowering its price, but failed to elaborate on the level of the subsidy.
It's estimated that 1.5 million gray market and counterfeit Chi-Phones are already being manhandled in China, proving that there's no shortage of demand for Apple's little handheld marvel.
According to Chang Xiaobing, the company will offer two versions of the third-generation iPhone. The first iPhone would not be Wi-Fi capable in order to comply with Beijing's restrictions on handsets with high-speed internet capability. The other iPhone is expected to allow Wi-Fi and WAPI, a Chinese standard for wireless networks according to reports by Dan Butterfield, editor of iPhonAsia.
An official iPhone launch in China is expected to occur sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009. Pricing for the device and service plans have not yet been disclosed. Apple had sold over 26.4 million iPhones in more than 80 countries as of June this year.
[WSJ]