iPhone may debut in Chinese market by early 2010, sans Wi-Fi
Two reports from Friday indicate that the iPhone will soon make it to market in China, although the Communist government wants to make sure that users aren't free to use their newly-acquired Apple goodness to criticize official policies.Gizmodo published an unconfirmed report that China Unicom may have a deal with Apple to sell iPhones with Wi-Fi blocked. Some of our readers might comment that China Unicom could just sell customers devices that have been upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0, since Wi-Fi doesn't appear to be working properly on many of those iPhones, but the Chinese government wants assurance that Wi-Fi is blocked on any iPhones sold in the country.
Why? To quote Gizmodo, "it's harder to sniff local packets than ones drifting through a wide-area network." What they're referring to here is the Golden Shield Project, known to many as the "Great Firewall of China." That's the Internet censorship and surveillance project run by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
The Gizmodo post is in turn based on a story by Business Week, which is reporting that Apple applied yesterday (July 10th) to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for a Network Access License to sell the iPhone in the country. Business Week notes that Apple may receive permission to officially sell iPhones in The Middle Kingdom by the time of the Spring Festival in 2010, which occurs in January.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ben said 2:00PM on 7-11-2009
China needs to jailbreak their censorship crap.
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Jeremy31061 said 3:33PM on 7-11-2009
I was thinking the same. Of apple sells the iPhone with wifi blocked, won't it be a software patch( considering they wouldn't manufacture a different phone specifically for china) if this is true couldn't the chinese consumer develop a cydia system to unblock the patch. Similiar to what we have with the mms on 2g here in the U.S?
Just my .02 though.
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vincentz.r.y said 10:13AM on 7-20-2009
well, the problem is wether the apple has factory in China.
TEG said 3:44PM on 7-11-2009
Why do we continue to do business with these people. We need to stop trading with the PRC, stop recognizing them as China, reaffirm that the Republic of China (currently on Taiwan) is the legitimate government, and let them half-life away.
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Duncan said 5:27PM on 7-11-2009
Have fun living your everyday life without trading without china, beyond getting companies to agree to stop serving one of the largest countries in the world, you yourself have to live without all the amenities tat countries like china provide, cheap labor, cheap material, lax foreign business taxes etc..
q said 9:57PM on 7-11-2009
I have to agree with TEG. I'm uncomfortable with American companies playing such an active rule in limiting freedoms. I don't know what the solution is, but it's definitely a tough call. Do I do what's best for the company or make a stand for the people. I would hope somebody would stand for the people.
zoffdino said 10:45PM on 7-11-2009
If only they don't make half the stuffs that we use or have the largest population on earth. Here in Canada, we don't get the iPhone until a year after its release in the State. But I guess doing business with the evil is a dilemma that companies must accept.
I don't like the way the Chinese government wants to control everything. This is surely worse then the old Soviet Union days. One day it will fell. The question is when.
Celedhring said 3:56PM on 7-11-2009
I still don't get the reason for this. Wi-Fi content can only be relayed through an internet signal that's already been censored/sniffed/greenwalled by the illustrious Chinese Government.
Of course big brother paranoia is always big brother paranoia
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me said 5:44PM on 7-11-2009
Guy at work has been buying iPhones from China for months, and I just got word from a friend in China at the moment that the new iPhone is AUD$500 outright. OK, the person is not 100% techno savvy so it may still be standard 3G version.
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mr groove said 7:03PM on 7-11-2009
Sans Wi-Fi - Does that mean we got the Chinese version of 3.0 here in the states?
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Jason Hung said 12:34PM on 7-13-2009
Just buy your iPhone 3G from Hong Kong at http://store.apple.com/hk. It's unlocked and you just need a Hong Kong shipping address. I'm sure the Chinese who are able to afford an iPhone in Hong Kong will have no trouble finding someone who has a Hong Kong address to ship.
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Maldaen said 7:36PM on 7-11-2009
In theory, Wi-Fi CAN be included on mobile devices in China now, as long as the hardware supports a specific communication protocol, or something like that. All Apple would have to do is switch the Wi-Fi hardware, if they haven't got this hardware in the 3GS already to accommodate these new rules.
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Rob said 10:03PM on 7-11-2009
Stop trading with Prc. Hahaha ... That's real funny. The iPhone is made in china. Check out the back of your iPhone in case you haven't notice.
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Vince said 10:44PM on 7-11-2009
For myself, I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for my Apple hardware if I knew it was manufactured in America by Americans and paid for with American dollars. We could have the infrastructure to do so within a year, but unfortunately it's all about the money, so cheap labor wins over domestic development.
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kderouen said 3:47PM on 7-12-2009
Agreed, I'd be willing to pay more if that were the case.
Sadly, I don't think many Americans feel that way. Most Americans want "something for nothing" or at least for as little as possible.
Patrick said 5:15PM on 7-12-2009
Nice idea, but given the fact that big parts of america already belong to China, that doesn't really make sense.
Brice said 1:10AM on 7-12-2009
TEG and Q, your ideas are amusing at best. Besides the obvious reasons, what's not obvious to you is the "evil" things the government (and by association the citizens of) the USA engage in on a daily basis. China and the USA are more similar than you would ever cate to admit.
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doug said 12:33AM on 7-12-2009
American companies should not bend to the will of the communist chinese. apple should not sell them the iphone, google should not offer censored search and Microsoft should not customize windows for their big brother ways.
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Chasen said 8:39AM on 7-13-2009
I don't get this... I have ben living in China for years now and have bought many cellphones here that have wifi capabilities (more recently my E71 and N79). Also, many Chinese produced phones (国产) also have wifi capabilities.
So I don't buy that they are blocking it for these reasons. Maybe to force people to use the 3G network vs. a free conection at starbucks?
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PS said 9:30AM on 7-13-2009
Time to build products in other cheap places with normal governments.
It's time to support other 3rd world places. Things are only cheap from china due to slave labor. Go Rio Tinto.
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