Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: iphone, china, apple, unlocked, wifi | Themes: Smartphones, 3GSM
Was it too little, too late for the iPhone in China?
The iPhone has officially launched in China, but customers don't seem to be as excited for the Apple device as their western counterparts have been in the past. According to the AP, mobile carrier Unicom managed to sell only 5,000 iPhones on the first day.
There are a couple of possible explanations of why sales are relatively low. First of all, the first batch of these phones are crippled as they come without any Wi-Fi capability. The proposed iPhone hardware with Wi-Fi was temporarily banned by Beijing (who was in favor of a rival Chinese system), but the ban was relaxed in May. By that time, however, manufacturing had already begun for the China-bound iPhones.
Unicom is now working with Apple to bring back Wi-Fi in future shipments and hopes to have things solved by the end of this year.
Secondly, those who are interested in the iPhone have been able to purchase them from grey market importer stores for around the same price as offered through the carrier. What's more, those imported phones come with Wi-Fi intact.
What will be a better gauge of consumer interest, should it ever happen, is when the China will be able to launch a future iPhone model alongside most other major markets. Maybe for the 4G, eh?
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Considering the wages they work for, I can't say I am surprised.
Can't say I'm surprised. The demand for iphones just isn't there. And nor is the money to pay for them by a vast majority of the Chinese populace.
I didn't doubt this either especially with so many cheaper knockoffs. That and as mentioned above about the wages. But you think that someone could get it for a better price, like when things mysteriously fall off the back of a truck.
If they can sell 5000 *PER DAY*... that's 1.8 MILLION phones in 1 year.
And remember... the price of the phone is more than 4 TIMES the price as the USA iPhone. So that's like 20,000 phones per day.
^ They're actually charging almost twice the amount as well. I read an article that some companies were charging $900 USD for an iphone...what a rip off
Being born in china and frequent travels to shanghai, I can say that there are much more selection of phones than north america where there is only iphone and crap phones. that means we have more options to choose from (much of which are not crippled). Not to mention most of those phones cost significantly less than the price apple is charging them
iPhone also bombed in india. Not everyone in the world is dying for an iphone; just the selection-starved americans.
China has been selling cheap knock off iPhones for several years now. Why would anyone expect Chinese people to spend the equivalent of $900 for the "real thing."
where are the most phones made? in china ,why would you buy a new phone when you assemble one every hour at work
Therefore, all carriers should be forced into the EU system of SIM cards?
I second yang and bin1127, phones in the US do suck!! Having an unlocked phone is a privilege in the US, in India and China it is a norm. I have this MetroPCS Nokia phone lying around, really wish I could use it with another network.
Umm.... the phones they have in China are much better than the ones here. So more competition for iphone, and less need for a smart phone since most people there already have one.
Guys, the iPhone isn't that popular outside of Apple's usual domain:
Summery of Reasons:
Require 2 thumbs for typing.
Monthly plans are not competitive.
Requires a Computer for syncing.
Unfashionable design.
In the US (and Europe?) we aren't getting cutting edge devices by any means. Korea, Japan, and China are making and using phones with 5 MP cameras, TV tuners, touch screens, 3G, GPS, WiFi, etc. They have had most of these features in phones for more than 5 years now almost standard!
The worlds cell phone market is completely different and I think the only reason the US (and Europe?) puts up with the current system is because we don't know any better.
I filtered out the complaints that were fixed with the 3GS:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/why-the-iphone/
I second yang and bin1127, phones in the US do suck!! Having an unlocked phone is a privilege in the US, in India and China it is a norm. I have this MetroPCS Nokia phone lying around, really wish I could use it with another network.
And supposedly this helps competition. Bullshit, I wish they would do away with this whole exclusive phone deals. It would make the carriers compete on building better networks. But like most things like this you don't hear much of it in the news anymore.
And supposedly this helps competition. Bullshit, I wish they would do away with this whole exclusive phone deals. It would make the carriers compete on building better networks. But like most things like this you don't hear much of it in the news anymore.
i am in india these days (no , i was born here) and i would never wanna have only one provider with my handsets . the regulation has introduced another great feature : if i change cellular network providers , i dont have to change my number . no more texting friends for a number change .
It doesn't surprise me at all. They can get the identical knock off at fraction of the real iphone price.
It doesn't surprise me at all. They can get the identical knock off at fraction of the real iphone price.
They can also get black market real iPhones WITH WiFi MUCH cheaper then these legal ones.
Guys, the iPhone isn't that popular outside of Apple's usual domain:Summery of Reasons:Require 2 thumbs for typing.Monthly plans are not competitive.Requires a Computer for syncing.Unfashionable design.In the US (and Europe?) we aren't getting cutting edge devices by any means. Korea, Japan, and China are making and using phones with 5 MP cameras, TV tuners, touch screens, 3G, GPS, WiFi, etc. They have had most of these features in phones for more than 5 years now almost standard!The worlds cell phone market is completely different and I think the only reason the US (and Europe?) puts up with the current system is because we don't know any better.I filtered out the complaints that were fixed with the 3GS:http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/why-the-iphone/
This is really the thing that I think most people miss. During my business travels I've noticed how many more high tech things are available in other countries, particularly S. Korea and Japan (and to a lesser extent the modern areas of China). In the US, phones and various other little QOL technologies tend to lag behind or are very slow to adopt (I'm thinking it has to do with the average American being fairly resistant to or suspicious of change). Some of the Japanese smart phones in particular are absolutely crazy in how many useful little features they have compared to US smart phones.
All Chinese brands are garbage. The only good phones in China are foreign brands and even then their technology just gets stolen and copied to produce a fake. The problem with the US is with the service providers and their rules and fees. As far as the Chinese being so poor it is a lie. Most Chinese save about 50% of their income, their are tons of rich people in China probably even more than in the US because the money is actually theirs and not borrowed. The Chinese need to drop this act that they are just this poor developing nation but in fact happen to have trillions in foreign reserves. People aren't fooled by this act anymore. Americans only has the outward appearance of being rich because it is all borrowed where as the Chinese in some places have the appearance of being poor but really have lots of money because they don't spend it on anything. I would rather buy a quality real product like an iphone than buy a fake which supports thieves and end up breaking all the time and having problems so that I end up having to buy 2 or 3 more and wasting a ton of time messing with it.
there are plenty of poor people in china. and there are PLENTY of rich people in china. cars are twice the price as in US. chinese are just not interested in Apple product rip-offs.
This is really the thing that I think most people miss. During my business travels I've noticed how many more high tech things are available in other countries, particularly S. Korea and Japan (and to a lesser extent the modern areas of China). In the US, phones and various other little QOL technologies tend to lag behind or are very slow to adopt (I'm thinking it has to do with the average American being fairly resistant to or suspicious of change). Some of the Japanese smart phones in particular are absolutely crazy in how many useful little features they have compared to US smart phones.
I want to move to Japan just for a $60/month gigabit net...
I want to move to South Korea for tech...
Nothing but crappy phones and $60/month 15megabit here!
China has had the iPhone for years, just not the "official" one. There have been clones, even clones that are better than the iPhone, since the original 2.5G iPhone launched. I read once that when the iPhone launched, a cloner leased some manufacturing capacity and not only cloned everything in the iPhone, but added 3G support. So when we got out iPhone 2.5s, China already had a 3G version.
That sucks for Apple. But I'm actually kinda glad, I really don't see why the iphone is so popular. I guess it is just us "Selection starved Americans".