- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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The problem with political jokes is they get elected - Henry Cote
Iphones won't be sold in China this year
CHINESE PRESS have noticed that Apple won't be selling Iphones in the middle kingdom this year. They saw it in the tea leaves of Apple's Q1 2009 financial report.
Apple said it hopes to launch the Iphone in the mainland China market sometime in 2010 and that it is working toward that goal.
China's dominant telecom China Unicom is expected to eventually strike a deal with Apple to release the 3G Iphone, but Chinese mobile users are wondering what is taking so long.
Our speculation is that China Unicom has been baulking at Apple's demand for a big chunk of its mobile subscriber revenues. Apple forced AT&T into such a deal in order to offer the Iphone in the US and has also had similar success with participating UK and Eurozone telecom carriers that offer expensive Iphone plans.
The longer China Unicom holds out, the more likely it will be that China might bypass the Iphone altogether. It's not like there aren't and won't be alternatives, including Google's Android and potentially competitive devices from local makers.
In unrelated Iphone news, it looks like Verizon might be starting a bidding war with AT&T to gain a share of the lucrative Iphone mobile subscriber market in the US. µ
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iPhonAsia posted a rebuttal comment today on an article in China Tech News which stated that there will be no iPhone in China in 2009. iPhonAsia believes that this is a false and misleading post by China Tech News. Here (below) is our reply to the China Tech News report ...
In your report you state “Apple said while publishing its latest financial report that it hopes the iPhone products could enter the Chinese market in 2010, which most likely means the iPhone will not be officially available in China this year.”
Where specifically did Apple state that they hope the iPhone could enter the Chinese market in 2010? I don’t believe anyone from Apple ever wrote or stated anything about 2010. I believe your report is inaccurate and misleading.
I’ve just read through the entire March 28, 2009 Apple 10Q and there is no mention of any delay for iPhone in China until 2010. In fact, iPhone in China is not even mentioned in the most recent Apple Q2 2009 10Q report. You can find it here https://www.apple.com/investor/
Perhaps your story is based on a very poorly researched report by Ynet.com and Trading Markets in the US who repeated a bad miss-translation of the recent Apple Q2 2009 earnings conference call? The Ynet.com report translated a quote from Apple COO Tim Cook about iPhone in China as follows … “Although the Chinese market, we have not yet entered, but we hope to be able to enter the market next year, and we do in the efforts to this end.”
This was NOT an accurate quote. The true (correct) quote was as follows:
Tim Cook: “We now have have the four “BIRC” countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China (Hong Kong), we have three of those up (not yet PRC) and we have 8,000 storefronts in those three selling the iPhone, so we feel very good about that and we’re putting a lot of energy in growing those. China we are not in yet. We would like to be in China within the next year (i.e. anytime within the next 12 months) and we’re clearly working on that. But I’ve got nothing specific to announce today on it (iPhone deals in China).”
I hope you will site your source or correct the record.
Dan Butterfield
Editor, iPhonAsia