Apple and China Unicom are close to announcing a deal to sell a stripped down version of the iPhone without Wi-Fi in China -- the world's biggest mobile market -- as early as September.
The two companies have reached an agreement on major issues including prices and order volumes and could formally announce the deal at the end of the week.
The China-based iPhone will have its Wi-Fi disabled to comply with a government rule that requires the removal of the device's wireless Internet function.
It will be priced at 3,000 yuan ($440 dollars) with a requirement that customers also buy 3,000 yuan worth of prepaid calls.
Although the handset isn't officially available in China, there are already 1.5 million units in use -- on sale from online vendors to resellers in sprawling malls.
China is the world's largest mobile market with more than 687 million customers -- compared with 270 million subscribers in the U.S.
Earlier this week, Taiwanese phone maker HTC announced plans to launch seven third-generation phones, including at least one Android phone, with China Mobile by 2010.
