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Aug. 28, 2009

Apple says it has agreed to a deal with China Unicom that will bring the iPhone to China in less than two months from now.

On Aug. 16, Wireless Industry News reported that state-owned China Unicom said it was in talks with Apple about becoming an iPhone reseller but denied a report it has reached a deal to buy 5 million iPhone handsets. Unicom is planning to offer the new smartphones in an effort to further expand its mobile network across China.

Overall, China would be the biggest market yet for Apple. The deal is expected to be announced during China Unicom’s earnings call today, when the wireless carrier will report results for the first half of this year.

Conflicting reports said the iPhone will be available with either a two-year contract or a mandatory purchase of prepaid minutes.

China will get a stripped-down version of the iPhone 3G, and the Chinese version of the device will not have Wi-Fi.

A lower number of Wi-Fi hot spots in China was cited as the key reason for lack of Wi-Fi on the device.

An iPhone in China comes as no surprise. Talks between China Unicom and Apple have been drawn out for months.

Overall, smartphone competition in China appears to have been picking up lately.

Dell recently confirmed that it has been in talks with China Mobile to develop a smartphone for that carrier’s network as well.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: Apple.