China Unicom Strikes iPhone Deal - WSJ.com

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China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. announced a deal with Apple Inc. to sell iPhones in China starting later this year, bringing the popular device to the world's largest mobile market for the first time.

The highly anticipated release of the iPhone in China -- which has 687 million wireless subscribers, more than twice the population of the U.S. -- is expected to be a boost for both Apple and Unicom, one of three Chinese state-owned telecommunications carriers. Still, the two companies face challenges to realizing the iPhone's potential in China, including competition from similar devices, and the companies left several key questions about pricing and other details unanswered Friday.

Under the three-year deal, iPhones will start to be sold in China in the fourth quarter of this year. Unicom will not share revenue with Apple, as some operators do, and it will purchase the handsets from Apple on a wholesale basis and resell them to consumers, the Chinese company said. Unicom Chairman and Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing said at a news briefing that it will offer a subsidy to customers to lower the iPhone's price, but he didn't elaborate on how much the subsidy would be. An Apple spokesman confirmed the Unicom deal, but declined to give further details.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the iPhone's launch in China was forthcoming. As reported, the Chinese version of the iPhone, at least initially, will be stripped of its Wi-Fi wireless Internet capability to comply with government regulations.

Unicom, which ...

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