China Unicom: we've sold 100,000 iPhones

Amid claims of poor iPhone sales, Dow Jones reports that China Unicom (CU) has sold 100,000 iPhones since the official launch in October of this year. While this represents a pickup in sales numbers -- CU reported selling just 5,000 units in the first 4 days -- it isn't incredibly impressive. China is the world's largest wireless market by subscriber accounts, and CU is the country's 2nd-largest carrier (China Mobile is first), representing some 144 million users as of October of 2009, according to Paul Wuh, an analyst covering China Unicom for Samsung Securities.

"iPhone sales have been disappointing," Wuh said. "For China Unicom, with 144 million subscribers, 100,000 iPhone users aren't going to do anything for their revenue."

What's behind all of it? As we've said before, the lack of Wi-Fi, strong black market and high prices are hindrances. Back in August of this year, China Unicom and Apple announced a 3-year deal. CU buys the handsets from Apple on a wholesale basis and does not participate in revenue sharing. China Unicom hopes that this deal will give them a leg-up on industry leader China Mobile.

[Via Macsimum News]

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Source: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/20091210…

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Amid claims of poor iPhone sales, Dow Jones reports that China Unicom (CU) has sold 100,000 iPhones since the official launch in October of...

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Ron

Didn't TUAW just post an article saying that they only sold 5 iPhones in China?? :lol:

December 10 2009 at 7:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Ron's comment

jbrown510

No. If you'd read the article it said Taobao (china's largest online retailer) had only sold five phones...

December 12 2009 at 12:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bernard Ramsey

If anything, the iPhone contagion has just started in China. Let's see what they do with the Chinese app store :) I have a feeling this is going to be really big!

December 10 2009 at 6:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Bernard Ramsey's comment

mike

it started like 2 years ago... when everyone in China got their first iPhone. I remember when the iPhone launched, I was working in Shenzhen (beside HK) and I went to some computer store to pick up OS X Leopard, a man in the elevator had in a plastic bag (ugh) about 10 iPhones, presumably ready to be 'unlocked' and resold. This was before I'd ever touched/used an iPhone so it was a real sighting.

Shortly thereafter you could walk into any mainstream mall and pickup an iPhone, with a simcard hack so you could drop any simcard in there.

December 10 2009 at 7:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Finnschi

wait.. beat another company, cheaper SALE ...... how is this communist ^^?

December 10 2009 at 4:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Finnschi's comment

John.B

The PRC isn't really communist anymore, at least not from a Maoist perspective. They are communist when it suits them, socialist when it suits them, and capitalist when it suits them. What unfortunately hasn't changed is how brutally they crack down on dissent. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

December 10 2009 at 5:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mike

Only Americans with their heads in the sand think China is actually communist.

Admittedly there's no Democratic process here, but who cares. In the US the big corporations have all the the "Democratic power" anyway (see: lobbyists) so whats the point of being a Democracy? The Chinese are super Competitive, super Capitalists and super money hungry. They're just not super smart.

Hmm, they really are looking more American by the day.

December 10 2009 at 8:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason Hung

The problem is that most Chinese people that can afford the iPhone at the high price it's being offered can either go to Apple Store Hong Kong (online) and have it sent to one of their friends (and guarantee me, anyone who can afford the iPhone in China will either have a residence in Hong Kong or a friend there), or travel to Hong Kong and have it shipped there (friend's, hotel, relatives, company).

The Hong Kong version has been sold out for quite some time that it's on back order for about 2 weeks on the Apple Store website. Nearly no retail shop carries it. But the Hong Kong version has several advantages the mainland version doesn't: WiFi, unlocked SIM support, no subsidy/contractual obligations, purchasable online.

So I, myself, an American-Born Chinese (my parents are from Taiwan) that travels to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China for work, have purchased my iPhone from Hong Kong.

December 10 2009 at 3:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply