By Allen Tsai | Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:00 am |
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 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. China Unicom, China's second-largest carrier, started negotiations with Apple shortly after the government issued third-generation, or 3G, mobile phone licenses in January. 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.
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