14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's iPhone is set to reach the handset market in China as soon as September, the latest news on the matter points out, becoming available on the airwaves of wireless carrier China Unicom. An agreement for the selling of the iPhone seems to have been inked recently between the operator and the Cupertino-based company, although nothing has been announced officially so far, and things might be already starting to kick off.
Recent reports on the Web suggest that China Unicom already bought a large number of iPhones from Apple, 5 million units to be more precise, paying around $1.46 billion for them, or around 10 billion yuan. On average, the carrier paid around 2,000 yuan, or $293, for each iPhone purchased, and we should also mention that these were custom WCDMA units that came to the market without Wi-Fi, being compliant with a governmental regulation.
“The price of the 8G standard iPhone is set at about 2,400 yuan and the 16G may be sold at 4,800 yuan,” said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom in Guangzhou. For comparison, the iPhone is already available in the country, via the grey market, only that its price ranges from 400 yuan ($59) to 1,000 yuan ($146).
From a certain point of view the deal with China Unicom might not seem to be that big in the end, especially considering that Apple managed to sell around 5.2 million iPhones in the last quarter (5,4 million, according to Gartner). Even so, the company will see some nice profits from the deal, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 1,100 yuan for each device sold.
Another interesting aspect of the Apple-China Unicom deal is the fact that the phone maker has dropped its rumored usual claims of 20 percent to 30 percent of profit dividends. For what it's worth, the deal is expected to help both companies when it comes to profits, Apple to see them registering an even higher growth than before, while China Unicom's profits to match those of rival China Mobile, the largest carrier in the country. For the time being, however, there are no details on the length of the deal, though there are some voices suggesting it is a three-year agreement.