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iPhone 3G to Say "Hello China" in August

The new iPhone might be released by China Unicom

Jun 18, 2008 08:43 GMT  ·  By
iPhone 3G
   iPhone 3G

One of the few big mobile markets where Apple's iPhone is not officially released yet, and we mean China, seems to be finally getting the touchscreen handset, starting August. Moreover, it's not the old iPhone that will make its way to China, but the new 3G one, which was unveiled on June 9.

Although Apple did not mention anything about China when announcing the future countries where iPhone 3G would be released, Chinese users might be able to legally buy the device via China Unicom, if we were to believe what ChinaTechNews is reporting.

Apple has been struggling to release its first generation iPhone in China since last year, but the Cupertino-based company did not reach any satisfying result in the negotiations with the two Chinese major carriers: China Mobile and China Unicom. Now it seems that Apple has finally done it and China Unicom will be the operator to offer the iPhone 3G to its customers. Since China doesn't have a nationwide 3G network deployed yet, the second-generation iPhone will work only on the GSM/EDGE networks, but I don't think that's a major problem for Chinese users.

I said earlier that China was a "big mobile market", but in fact it's a huge one, the largest in the world actually. Currently, there are more than 565 million people who own at least one cell phone, either they are China Mobile (392 million users) or China Unicom (167 million users) subscribers. And despite the fact that most consumers have affordable handsets (unlike the iPhone 3G), Apple will probably sell a large number of smartphones in China when these become available.

Besides 3G connectivity (useless in China at the moment), the new iPhone also brings built-in GPS, access to App Store, Microsoft Exchange and a fancier design. Plus, a special iPhone version for China will support the Chinese language and its touchscreen will recognize Chinese characters.

The iPhone 3G release in China is surely good news for the country's mobile users in need of high-end devices, so let's wait and see if this is for real or if it's just another rumor.