Hutchison unveiled today that it would officially launch Apple's iPhone in Hong Kong and Macau, "later this year", via its 3 network. The announcement, made on the company's official website, is a very short one and it doesn't give any details about the exact date of the handset's availability, nor about its price. Even more, there's no word on whether the device set to be launched is the 3G iPhone or the first generation 2.5G one.

Anyway, what's clear is that 7.5 million people (7 million in Hong Kong and 0.5 million in Macau) will theoretically have the chance to buy an iPhone the official way. Sure, they can buy it now too, but only unlocked, on the "grey market" and for high prices.

For users who might not know yet, the iPhone is a full-touchscreen device that comes with features like: a wide 3.5 inch display with 340 x 480 pixels and 16 million colors, a multi-touch user interface based on Mac OS X, accelerometer, Google Maps, full Safari web browser, Wi-Fi, a huge internal memory (8GB or 16GB - user's choice) iPod music and video player and so on. Of course, this is the first generation, EDGE-only iPhone, so the 3G one will have even more features.

Both Honk Kong and Macau (situated in the same region) are basically part of China, except that they have the "special administrated region" status, hence they're different mobile markets. Even so, it will probably not be long until the iPhone will also be officially released in mainland China.

With the other recent announcements regarding the iPhone's future availability, it seems that Apple will be present, by the end of 2008, on about all the important mobile markets across the globe. From the big markets, only China, Japan, South Korea and Russia have not yet confirmed to be offering the iPhone, but the fancy touchscreen handset will surely be available there too, sooner or later.