Chinese iPhone 3G Approved, Caught in the Wild?

[sayam]

Apple has been struggling hard to bring iPhone into the Chinese market - but even after more than a years of trying, they've yet to achieve any solid success. Each round of negotiations have proven useless so far. According to a report by a Chinese news agency, the deal between China Unicom and Apple was confirmed and both signed a 3-year agreement. Though the spokesperson from China Unicom denied the fact, some new discoveries have been made to support the news. Sure, this is quite old news - but the new findings have strengthened the claim!



The fine folks over at Engadget notes a listing approved by China's State Radio Regulatory Commission (Chinese equivalent of FCC), which points towards a GSM / WCDMA device featuring Bluetooth and an internal model number A1324 submitted by the applicant "Apple, Inc." approved on 7th May, 2009. The approval runs for 5 years, making it quite comfortable for the Chinese carrier and Apple to enjoy a 3-year exclusivity deal.



On top of that, a Chinese blog has even posted some supposed pics of the Chinese iPhone in the wild! Noticeably, the picture with settings app opened shows no option for WiFi - strengthening the old claims of a WiFi-less iPhone for China. The images look pretty neat but of course CAN be fake - don't jump on to any conclusions until we get official word.

[Engadget]

[Kruejl]

Why no WiFi?

[playful_cyanide]

Why no WiFi?

The supposed claim for no Wi-Fi is because, basically, they want to keep people on 3G.

I'm assuming that in China, there is basically Wi-Fi in a lot of places, thus eliminating the need for a 3G internet connection. Well, carriers want to charge people a heap amount of money for their data connection, and Apple is desperate enough to remove Wi-Fi in order to have the iPhone in China.

[NeoNightmareX]

Why no WiFi?

The internets couldn't travel through all the pollution. Zing!

Nice find Sayam. I'm assuming those would be sold factory unlocked, correct?

[playful_cyanide]

Also, if the phone is GSM/WCDMA, would we be able to develop a hack to make the "Chinese iPhone" compatible with Verizon Wireless? (Of course, this would depend on the frequencies of the radio stacks)

[PainBlade]

I'm sure that the picture posted is just a preview in the works. I mean what about the app store market in china? If someone were to download an app over 10mb, the time required to download that app via 3G would be longer than a WiFi connection.And from the picture of the back of the iPhone, it doesn't look like a plastic back, or it's just scratched.

[Melech518]

Great find...this is exciting stuff..I am sure the iPhone will look the same as the 3G/3GS. Waste of money for Apple to fabricate and entirely different device model

[Nyyrikki]

The supposed claim for no Wi-Fi is because, basically, they want to keep people on 3G.

I'm assuming that in China, there is basically Wi-Fi everywhere, thus eliminating the need for a 3G internet connection. Well, carriers want to charge people a heap amount of money for their data connection, and Apple is desperate enough to remove Wi-Fi in order to have the iPhone in China.

I agree on that removing WIFI is intended to "encourage" users to do data connection through celluar network, but WIFI is not everywhere in China at least not everywhere in Shanghai.

[algojobathosai]

no wifi?!! WTF

[sayam]

Also, if the phone is GSM/WCDMA, would we be able to develop a hack to make the "Chinese iPhone" compatible with Verizon Wireless? (Of course, this would depend on the frequencies of the radio stacks)

Nope . . . On contract basis

[StealthBravo]

lol @ no wifi

[playful_cyanide]

...but WIFI is not everywhere in China at least not everywhere in Shanghai.

Yeah. I have never been in China, thanks for the tip.

[algojobathosai]

It better not having the iphone rather than having the iphone without wifi. What the purpose? Stupid Apple...

[BG| Swagger]

The reason for No Wifi if you have not been following the Issue with China taking so long approve the Iphone is because they predict that a lot of people will purchase the Iphone if the majority of people use the wifi signal over the wireless data signal 1) the carrier would take a huge hit in revenue and 2) China is intrusive when it comes to wireless communications they like to be in control and be able to monitor all traffic in the event of a terrorist attack and for them its a lot harder to monitor traffic going through a wireless device aka wireless phone, laptop then it is on the wireless data network. this has been what has been holding up the negotiations as well as a lot of other stuff but this has been one of the bigger factors to take care of is that they wanted no wifi on the iphone.

[dale1v]

BGI Swagger got it- it's harder to track packets and snoop through WiFi connection than to do the same through 3G data connection

[playful_cyanide]

BGI Swagger got it- it's harder to track packets and snoop through WiFi connection than to do the same through 3G data connection

I sense sarcasm. . .

[angiepangie]

Not so sure about that.
Communism... human rights is very little known.
I get (fun fun) stories about it everyday -_-

[insanne]

Please guys,

iphones are already in China, big time. I just got back from the electronics mall and 70% of the shops a selling iphones, 3GS, jailbroken with redsnow and unlocked with ultrasnow.

The Chinese even has a programme that is equivalent to iTunes, except the progs are all free.

Apple is losing money for every day that they are late.

[dale1v]

I sense sarcasm. . .

No, It's actually correct.

[rwin84]

Communism is so awesome!