Not that this should surprise anyone, but Apple has sold only 5,000 iPhones since last week when it officially launched. The phrase “officially launched” is key, since people there have been able to buy the iPhone on the gray market for some time now. And it’s a superior phone on the grey market, since the official phone doesn’t have Wi-Fi. That’s right: a smartphone nearly in 2010 that doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
The phone isn’t particularly expensive, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that China Unicom and Apple have released a crippled version of a phone that had already been widely available.
Who’s gonna buy that? Apparently very few people!
Someone, and I don’t know who, expects Apple to sell as much as 460,000 official iPhone in China per year. Keep in mind that that’s still less than the number of grey market phones, so all of this is sorta silly.
Official vs. unofficial = sales. It still goes on the books and look for Unicom to drop the price ASAP or perhaps they’ve already made a deal with Apple to purchase X number of phones sans the WIFI.
Why would you by an iPhone when you can get a perfectly good Chinese knock off for far less?
Did you actually try those knock offs? Because I’ve used a few of them borrowed from friends and they all really sucked. Very slow, horrible interface and sometimes buggy.
Never seen a gook one, though they might exist!
The reason Apple launched the iPhone in China without Wi-Fi is “the Chinese government temporarily banned the wireless standard in favor of a rival Chinese offering”. (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/02/apples_iphone_sees_tepid_sales_debut_in_china.html). Sure the “gray market” has the Wi-Fi option, but since it isn’t exactly a legal marketplace, following Chinese government regulations isn’t high on the priority list. So stating: “The issue is that China Unicom and Apple have released a crippled version of a phone that had already been widely available.” is a statement based on lack of simple research. Both Apple and China Unicom are constrained by Chinese government regulations. Please don’t dis a company’s product sales performance without a little rudimentary research.
According to my Chinese friends, we need to be aware of Chinese culture to understand what we are seeing. Not all areas in China have WiFi and not all users actually want WiFi. Don’t apply North America logic to this. Apple knows what it’s doing.
Also, the Chinese wait to see the device in the hands of others before they buy. They are not like us in North America where we are known to sleep out in the street for days before a concert or before the next issue of Harry Potter comes out.
My only fear is the reverse engineering part where they can make a cheaper version. But there are many features that only apple has, including the high resolution, low power display and some of the chip sets. I suppose leaving out the WiFi may also stage the release and set up for a second release later where an upgrade would lead to another sale!
In short, don’t assume. China went for this deal because it knows what its people want. Apple is smart too.
dimwits, that is the wrong headline. The @#$$##^%$$# Chinese phone company sold 5000 iphones. Apple did not sell any.
Actually, you’re right because gets paid in advance once the product is ordered by China.