China Mobile has confirmed that it is in talks with Apple over bringing the iPhone officially to its network. China Mobile’s chairman Xi Guohua told its shareholders about the talks although there is still no news if a deal has been agreed.

“China Mobile and Apple both have the will to strengthen cooperation,” Xi said. “When there is more specific news, we will disclose it.”

Source: Bloomberg, Image: Business Week

Apple and Proview are apparently in talks to settle the case of who has rights to the iPad trademark in China, and rumor has it Apple's initial offer was $16 million. This is after Proview's initial ask of a whooping $2 billion in February, which they've since lowered to $63 400 million according to anonymous sources. Although it might seem like an obscene amount to ask, it's worth noting that Proview is a company on the verge of economic collapse with creditors knocking on their door.

Proview has claimed that the UK-based middle-man that had originally sold the rights to Apple a few years ago actually didn't have the authority to do so, thus nullifying any earlier agreement, while Apple is contending that the original agreement was legitimate.

This trademark hurdle is slowing down the new iPad's arrival in China, but by the sounds of it, Apple's patience will outlast Proview's needs to pay off debts. Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take for this trademark battle to conclude?

Source: Sina via TNW

Foxconn's CEO Terry Gou recently revealed that they intend to split the initial costs of improving factory working conditions with Apple following an extensive third-party audit of the facilities where iPads and iPhones are made.

We've discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength. I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.

Gou didn't go into any further detail as to how much these improvements would cost or how much of it Apple would take care of, but it's certainly not uncommon for Apple to invest in Foxconn's facilities. One of the bigger changes at Foxconn facilities has been to dial back overtime hours, which is something not all employees are thrilled about, though Foxconn had promised that wages would go up to counterbalance the loss of hours.

Apple has been very proactive in supporting Foxconn with these changes, and they can't afford not to be; as the mobile industry leader, all eyes on on Apple to find and expose weaknesses, especially if it stands to put a dent in Apple's generally-outstanding public image. The fact is, brutal factory conditions are a natural part of the labor landscape in China, and from the sounds of things, Foxconn is one of the better places to work.

Does Apple deserve a pat on the back for pitching in to support its partner, or is it a responsibility that all smartphone manufacturers should take up?

Source: Reuters

Apple and Proview are duking it out in China over the iPad trademark, but stateside, a California judge recently tossed out the case. Judge Mark Pierce from the Superior Court in Santa Clara dismissed the comaplaint, letting it fall to Hong Kong courts to decide what happens with the iPad name. Apparently leaving the fight in Hong Kong is what Apple and Proview had originally agreed on, though Proview later said it was unfair to do so, but didn't provide any evidence of why that might be. Still, Proview lawyers weren't too happy with this outcome and issued a statement:

We are looking forward to presenting the facts in the case to the appellate court, and we are confident that the facts will show that Apple fraudulently obtained the iPad trademarks.

I can only imagine that Proview has asked an exorbitant settlement fee from Apple; the question that remains is whether Apple should just cough up to get this over with, or hold out and likely win the case, but severely slow (or stop) the sale of iPads in China over what will likely be a long legal battle.

Source: WSJ

Proview lawyers recently said that Apple has had a change of heart and are discussing settlements with the LED manufacturer over the use of the iPad name in China. One of Proview's attorneys said in an interview:

We feel that the attitude of Apple Inc. has changed. Although they expressed that they were willing to negotiate, they have never taken any action before. But now, they are having conversations with us, and we have begun to consult on the case.

Seeing as Apple has more money than God, I'm surprised they aren't just throwing a brick of cash at these guys so they can get on with the business of selling tons of iPads in China. The iPhone 4S made a huge splash in China, and no doubt the new iPad stands to be just as big of a hit provided it can wrestle its way through this legal quagmire.

Source: Xinhuanet via iClarified

An elderly Chinese lady was stopped at customs trying to import more than 200 iPhones hidden inside used beer bottles. The iPhones which are available for a lot less in Hong Kong were being imported into Shenzhen China.

Collecting beer bottles is not that suspicious of a pastime for some as they can be given to recycling centers in exchange for a small payment. This time however customs officers were highly suspicious due to the weight of the bottles. On further investigation, officers discovered that the bottles had been tampered with. Each bottle had been professionally cut in half and each one loaded with three iPhones; they had then been taped back together.

The bottles contained a total of 216 iPhones, a mixture of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models. It makes you wonder about the lengths these smugglers will go just to get the iPhones back into China; where they are actually made. This seems like a highly complicated procedure and a very clever one too!

Source: MIC gadget

The Fair Labor Association's report about working conditions at Foxconn, Apple's primary manufacturing partner, vouched that workers would see fewer overtime hours without a change in pay, but employees aren't convinced that they'll be able to keep the same level of income. A few workers commented at the factory gates on being allowed a maximum of 49 hours a week, including overtime.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money," said Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China. ... "We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little," she added. Chen said she now earned a bit over 4,000 yuan a month ($634).

The FLA said that they would be doing a study on cost of living around the three factories they had audited, and based on that, will be determining if wages are adequate. Here's an interview with the association's CEO, which I think gives an interesting and likely more realistic perspective on Foxconn working conditions.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting China, having recently toured Foxconn facilities, but so far his most interesting meeting has been with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang. Li committed to improving intellectual property protection for international companies like Apple, who is currently duking it out with a local LCD vendor over the iPad trademark. The Vice Premier said specifically:

To be more open to the outside is a condition for China to transform its economic development, expand domestic demands and conduct technological innovation.

Apple has invested a ton of money into Foxconn, and by association, the Chinese economy; it's expected that they're also on good terms with the government, and that they'll keep up those relations to make sure iPhone and iPad production continues unabated. That said, I can't help but wonder who needs who more as far as economics go: China for the money Apple's bringing in, or Apple for China's supply chain?

Source: Xinhua

Though Apple hasn't announced when the new iPad will be coming to China, the Wi-Fi model has recently passed through the China Quality Certification Center. This bodes well for a launch in the next couple of weeks or months, but there are a few hurdles.

China has proven to be highly active app users, but it seems like Samsung is still leading the way in the area of smartphones. One significant roadblock to the new iPad in particular has been a claim to the trademark by a Chinese lighting and display manufacturer called Proview. Even though passing through the certification process bodes well for a new iPad launch in one of the world's biggest markets for electronics, the trademark squabble is ongoing, and may hold up the release for awhile still. Eager Chinese consumers will also have to wait for a 3G model to pass through certification.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had recently visited China to talk with government officials, and I would be surprised if a big part of those discussions weren't about getting the new iPad onto store shelves.

Source: PCWorld, The Guardian

Now that the new iPad is out the door, Foxconn has started hiring to build the next iPhone. According to fresh reports, Foxconn is short 20,000 pairs of hands to handle Apple's production demands for the iPhone 5 (or whatever it's going to be called). This year alone, Foxconn has held more than 20 job fairs in order to churn out the  supposed 57 million iPhone 5 units demanded by Apple.

We've heard lots of rumours about the iPhone 5, including that it will have LTE, keep the small-ish screen size, and have a new micro-dock connector, but everything is up for conjecture for now, including crazy pseudo-textured touchscreens. At the rate Apple's going, it's expected that the next iPhone will do well, but one can hope that the next generation will at least have a slightly different form factor; we've been looking at the same iPhone casing for nearly two years now, so at least a little bit of cosmetic changes are due, if only for variety, right?

As far as the Foxconn employment surge goes, word has it that those signing on will enjoy the recent pay increase. Though I doubt those long hours documented by Nightline are going to change, I don't think the conditions for these new employees are going to be as bad as some people make them out to be.

Source: China News via 3G

Search giant Baidu owns roughly 87% of of the huge Chinese market, and according to rumors, Apple could be planning to add support for their service to a future version of iOS. Sina Tech is reporting that, according to their "knowledgable sources", Baidu integration could come as early as next month. Tech in Asia translates and encapsulates:

Apparently, Baidu’s cloud and mobile chief Li Mingyuan hinted at this during the launch of Baidu’s cloud storage service last week, saying that the company already had a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Apple in China.

iOS currently has Google as the default search engine, with options to switch to Yahoo! and Bing in the Safari Settings. There's been no official word from either Baidu or Apple on the matter, but OS X Mountain Lion contains expanded Chinese web services so iOS adding one more search engine, especially one as big as Baidu, in a market as important to Apple as China, doesn't seem far-fetched.

Indeed, China currently tops the charts when it comes to iOS device activations, recently blowing past the US. Even though Apple still trails Samsung, Apple has increasingly stressed the growth of their retail presence and product adoption in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook has placed China ahead of Brazil and Russia on Apple's priority list, saying demand in China has been staggering and off the charts. Apple has even reportedly been working to help better support gray-market iPhones on China's largest carrier, China Mobile.

If accurate, it would also likely need to be part of an iOS 5.1.x or even iOS 5.2 update.

Whether or not this has anything to do with Apple's increasingly tense relationship with Google is uncertain, but putting Baidu on iOS, even if Google retains default status, could further erode what percentage of the search space Google has managed to secure in China.

Source: Sina Tech via Tech in Asia, The Next Web

A recent study by Flurry Analytics shows that China the fastest-growing market for iOS and Android app activity; between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012, app sessions have increased 1126%. Yowza. On top of that, Flurry has calculated  that new activations of iOS and Android devices in China has now surpassed the U.S. They project that China will activated 24% of all Android and iOS, which is a stark contrast to 8% at the same time last year, and a smidgen ahead of the 21% activation rate in America. While the U.S. still boasts the most app activity, its lead is shrinking; last year, America accounted for 56% of iOS and Android app sessions, but now account for only 46%. Collectively, China, UK, South Korea, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany and Spain now account for 30% of app activity, and the rest of the world takes up 24%.

Apple has called China an "extremely important" market in their quarterly conference calls for a while now, placing it ahead of Brazil and Russia as an area of focus. Tim Cook has said the demand for Apple products in China is "staggering" and "off the charts". Apple has also been investing heavily in building Apple Stores in China and getting devices into the country and onto the market.

While this bodes well for the progress of iPhone and iPad in China, I would be really curious to see the breakdown between Android and iOS for these figures. In an absolute sense, the U.S. still spends the most time with apps, but I'm not sure that will be the case in a year's time, especially as cost-conscious Android handsets continue to proliferate.

Source: Flurry

If you though the iPhone was big in China, think again. Gartner says that despite landing a deal with China Telecom, Apple has only a third of Samsung's smartphone market share. Samsung currently holds 24.3%, while Apple currently commands 7.5% of Chinese smartphone owners. Gartner says that the situation won't change without support for China Mobile, the biggest carrier in the country (and the world, for that matter).

As is, Apple will be able to reach 34% of the Chinese market, leaving about 655 million consumers outside of their reach. Even without official support, 15 million China Mobile subscribers are apparently willing to live on 2G and Wi-Fi so long as they get to use an iPhone 4S.

Although it's unfortunate for Apple that they're missing out, they haven't bothered to make an AWS-compatible iPhone to address the entire U.S. market, so it's not entirely surprising that they aren't willing to make a TD-SCDMA iPhone either. Maybe once China rolls out LTE Apple will be able to address the entire market there.

Yes, Apple is still dominating in global profit share, but with Apple's margins, every point of market share brings with it a huge amount of profit share, and in China they're just not exploiting it to its full potential yet.

Source: Bloomberg

Fake iPhones are starting to become a common sight on the streets of New York as criminals look to cash in on the huge demand for the latest Apple device. The problem however is that the iPhones being sold by illegal vendors are probably fake. The latest discovery took place on Ninth Avenue at 39^th Street a few weeks back where an NYPD officer approached a vendor who was trying to sell a brand new boxed iPhone 4 for just $150; of course it was a fake.

The iPhone in question looked like a fake with a much inferior build quality, smaller screen and ill fitting buttons. Remarkably the fake iPhone did turn on and run apps. The apps of course were not iOS apps but some horrible copy with blurry screens; certainly not retina quality that’s for sure! NYPD later discovered that the illegal vendor also worked out of a store and promptly acquired a warrant to search the premises.

Officers raided the store on Feb. 9 and found what the police described as among the larger inventories of fake Apple electronics for sale on the East Coast. They said there were 436 iPhones, 21 iPads, 128 iPods — all fake. An official from Apple showed up to verify as much. “If you walked in and said, ‘I want a 32-gigabyte white iPhone,’ they had it,” Sergeant O’Connell said. “The iPad was the size of a Kindle screen.” Some devices turned on, while others appeared to need to be plugged in first. The police said they also found $2,400 in cash, a bunch of security cameras and two people working, Cindy Liu, 25, and Mo Ling, 36, who were arrested.

Source: The New York Times

The other night, ABC's Nightline got a peek into Foxconn's manufacturing facilities and shed some light on how the iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products are made. The main angle was to investigate the humanitarian conditions of the factories, and though there were certainly some interesting findings, there are a few details that Apple and Foxconn wanted to clarify. The first was regarding Zhou Xiao Ying, who deburred Apple logos from iPad casings. It was suggested that she goes through 6000 units a day, but it's actually half that.

“In manufacturing parlance this is called deburring. Her line processes 3,000 units per shift, with two shifts per day for a total of 6,000. A single operator at Ms. Zhou’s station would deburr 3,000 iPads in a shift.”

The other correction was about Foxconn not paying their employees enough to merit income tax. Foxconn's explanation on that particular was a little more roundabout.

“We have over 75 percent of the employees in the category of earning at least 2,200 RMB ($349/month) basic compensation standard. That means they are earning 13.75 RMB ($2.18) per hour. If they work overtime on the weekend, they will earn 27 RMB ($4.28) per hour. In order to reach 3500 to be taxable, they will have to work 47 OT hours to reach 3,500. If the overtime hours are in weekdays, they have to work around 63 hours per month to reach that level of salary to be taxable. Your statement is only true when applying to the entry-level workers while over 75 percent are already over the probation and earning more than 2,200 RMB basic salary.”

"The discussions began in April 2007 but stalled in March 2008. We then resumed them in April 2009 and decided to do a small pilot survey so that Apple could get an idea of how our tools might add value to their program. That pilot led to a second activity that I believe contributed to the decision to join the FLA at the end of 2011. I, of course, cannot speak for Apple but I do believe that the decision to join was probably taken some months before (and therefore well before) the New York Times articles."

Source: ABC

Apple had to attend a court in China last night as it became embroiled in a battle over the rights to the iPad name in China.  Proview, a company which has already filed for bankruptcy claims that Apple does not own the trademark for the iPad in China. Proview has already caused disruption to the sale of the iPad in China and is looking to gain a complete ban.

The case was heard at the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court on Wednesday where both parties were represented. A heated four hour session ended without any rulings or indications as to how the case may be resolved. Proview has already successfully blocked sales of the iPad in several smaller Chinese cities and even managed to get the authorities to seize iPads from the shelves of some retailers. Apple believes that it bought the rights for the iPad name from Proview back in 2009 and this should cover China.

“We bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China.” But Proview claims that Apple did not obtain all the rights, and contends its Shenzhen subsidiary retains the rights in China.

Source: The New York Times

Chinese courts have quickly ruled in favour of Proview's trademark infringement case against Apple's iPad. One of the Intermediate People's Courts in China's Guangdong province has decided that local distributors need to stop selling iPads because Proview had a previous claim to the name. Of course, the case still has to go to Shanghai, where Apple will make a concerted resistance.

Apple has certainly had their fair share of trademark issues, but the fact that some courts in China are already calling for a ban on iPad sales shows this may be a tougher fight than usual. Of course, China will have a hard time blocking imports, but Apple has such a huge local retail presence that a permanent ban on iPad sales would be a considerable blow.  Massive population aside, China's passion for Apple products is sizable, and even a slight lapse in sales could mean a lot of lost revenue. Here's hoping Apple can squash this complaint when the case gets to Shanghai this week.

Update: It looks like Apple is threatening to countersue Proview with defamation if it keeps talking about how it owns the iPad name. Such a defamation claims seems like a bit of stretch since it's begging the original question, but these kind of moves aren't uncommon in protracted engagements. At very least, maybe a countersuit will slow down Proview enough that Apple will have enough time to further cement themselves in Chinese retail, making a ban unfeasible.

Source: Reuters

Nightline is going to be airing their big exposé on Foxconn tomorrow night, but the write-up of their visit to Foxconn is now available. Although Nightline reports that there are nets just about everywhere to catch anyone trying to commit suicide, depression is apparently not that common. The counseling center is sparsely used (most of the workers were simply tired from their 10-to-12-hour shifts), and despite the high profile of the suicides within recent memory, 18 attempts over the last couple of years actually isn't that many considering the Foxconn employs and houses a veritable city of over 230,000 within Shenzhen. A counselor at Foxconn explained why some of the suicides happened.

"There are many reasons. We had many scholars here doing research. Of course some (suicide) has to do with the management. But they had more to do with the new generation of migrant workers from the rural areas, their state of mind and how they cope with society. Also it's hard to make friends here."

"I expect them to put on a show for us. That's normal with every factory you go to, even if it's just the time that it takes you to get from the gate to the factory floor, there's always fifteen or twenty minutes of protocol to get in there. The special equipment comes out, they put the ear plugs in, they put the masks on, and they can transform a factory in twenty minutes, so we expect that."

This tour is a particularly big deal because Apple has traditionally never allowed press inside the factories where iPhone, iPads, and other Apple products are assembled, but an ongoing rash of bad press related to Foxconn has prompted  them to open up the doors, at least a little bit. Apple has got to be applauded for the unprecedented amount of effort they're putting into improving working conditions throughout their entire supply chain. One can only hope that other manufacturers start doing the same before the world starts to learn that it's not only iPhone factories that are harsh working environments.

Source: ABC

Apple has addressed concerns over the iPad trademark case brought by Proview that has recently had online retailers in China removing iPad's from their inventory. In a statement issued to China Daily, Apple asserts that Proview is simply not honoring the agreement in place.

“We bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple, and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter,” according to the statement, which also said the case is still pending on the Chinese mainland.”

When Apple purchased the iPad trademark, it was from a UK firm who had purchased it from Proview Taiwan, the sister company of Proview Shenzhen who didn't have the rights to actually sell the trademark.

Xie Xianghui, a lawyer representing Proview Shenzhen responded to Apple's statements, claiming that Apple meant to confuse the public. He said that the outcome in Hong Kong would have no bearing on other court cases because of how different the legal systems are.

“Apple is worried the iPad trademark will be resold before the hearing is finished, so it asked the Hong Kong court to forbid Proview Shenzhen from doing that,” , adding that the court’s decision to prevent the trademark from being transferred cannot be seen as showing that it has ruled in favor of Apple.

As the proceedings move on slowly, many retailers have stated they'll not stop selling the iPad in China but it's viewed by some that it might just be easier to settle on a deal with Proview Shenzhen rather then fighting the legal system in China. At least then, Apple would own the trademark fully without question and they could continue on without wondering if they may have to deal with the issue at some other point in time.

Source: People Daily via: 9to5Mac

Rene recently wrote an editorial about the current controversy surrounding Apple and the working conditions in the Chinese factories where Apple -- and almost every other consumer electronics company -- has their products made. It was a nice editorial, but I disagree with it completely. Well, almost completely. I do agree that it's an important issue and that the discussion is good. He took a position and argued it well, that China was the story, and Apple merely link-bait. And it's that position I disagree with.

First of all, just because almost every other consumer electronics company uses the same factories in no way lets Apple off the hook. If anything, it just means those hooks are awfully crowded.

Each and every one of those companies, including Apple, are accountable for their own actions, or lack of action, concerning the working conditions in the factories where their products are made.

If Apple were to pull out of these factories, it's true that a lot of other companies would remain, but so what? Apple will have done something, and even more pressure could be exerted on the ones that remained, and they'd look even worse because they remained.

Change often comes from a single, courageous act that disrupts the status quo and sets into motion a new course of action that others simply must follow.

If staying engaged proves to be a better strategy, however, Apple could still be a greater agent for change. They could see to it workers were paid more, for example, or insist upon more reasonable working schedules.

Of course, Apple can't just give the factories more money. It would likely disappear long before it reached the workers, as money often seems to. But Apple could make worker wages a condition of their contracts. It would take time, and require enormous oversight to make sure the factories followed through, but it would be worth it.

Apple makes incredible profits. That's their job as a company. Using those profits to elevate the wages of Chinese workers isn't a net loss, however. It's an investment. Just like Henry Ford insisted on paying his workers enough so that, one day, they could become his customers, Apple would one day benefit from the more rapid establishment of greater customer base in China.

Yes, we in the Western world went through our own industrial revolution, and the working conditions were deplorable, but now we have labor laws and minimum wage, access to health insurance or health care. Unemployment and homelessness remain a huge problem, of course, and there's suffering and abuse of the system to be sure. But in general we as a society face a far, far higher standard of living than that facing Chinese factory workers.

And it's not okay to exploit that difference.

When the media reports on Apple's role in the Chinese factory system, when organizations plan protests, rather than say it's link-bait or opportunism, I see it as a call to action.

Apple is one of the wealthiest and most influential companies in the world. With that money and power comes responsibility. While having razor-thin profit margins certainly doesn't excuse the Dells or HPs, having hefty profit margins absolutely puts the burden on Apple to lead the way. They can afford to pay more. Customers like me might even be proud to know that Apple is paying more.

I buy fair trade coffee. I'd certainly buy an iPad proudly produced by fair labor.

Things won't change over night. They never do. The people who run the factories in China won't wake up tomorrow and suddenly start paying their workers better, or start making their working conditions more palatable.

But demanding change will make it come faster.

The more the media reports on working conditions in China, the more people are informed about it, the more the outcry that follows, the more companies like Apple fear the bad press and public perception, the more their brand or reputation suffers, the more they're motivated to take action, to speed up the change.

Apple gets the spotlight because of their size and their impact. They dent the universe. Instead of just denting it with better phones or newer tablets, why don't they really wind up and dent it by making lives better?

Tim Cook purportedly said, in response to these stories, that Apple "cares about about every worker in their worldwide supply chain."

Great. It's time for them to prove it.

"Boycotting Apple because of working conditions in China makes about as much sense as boycotting The New York Times because of journalism conditions in America."

There are several stories floating around the web this week concerning boycotts planned against Apple, the result of stories floating around the web last week concerning working conditions in China. While in some cases the sentiment is good and the intention noble, in many cases its based on lazy, exploitive journalism and shallow, opportunistic activism, fed by a soundbite- and sensation-seeking readership.

And while Apple and China is just the latest example, it's also one of the most tragic.

We've talked about it for the last couple of weeks during the iPhone & iPad Live podcast, but it's worth going over again here.

The problems with working conditions are real. Absolutely. Apple's role in the Chinese manufacturing system is real. Undeniably. But just as absolutely, just as undeniably, the real story here is about China and workers, not about Apple.

The pain isn't of a situation but of a transition -- the pain that come with the slow, steady growth through industrialization and the creation of a middle-class, manufacturing society.

Apple is only one of many, many, many companies that use factories in China to produce their goods. While some few, token others are sometimes briefly listed in one sentence, the title, lede, and every other sentence in a lot of the recent coverage throws the spotlight entirely on Apple.

That misses the industry-wide nature of the issue, and the global economic nature of the issue. While Apple is certainly the most wealthy, influential, and likely powerful company in the industry, and in the world, at the moment, they aren't the industry and are certainly not the global economy.

If Apple pulled out of China tomorrow, the entire rest of the industry would remain. The rest of the industry that hasn't posted supplier responsibility reports like Apple has done. HP, Dell, Nokia, Samsung, Lenovo, Motorola, LG, Sony, and everyone else in consumer electronics who aren't facing any media or pundit pressure to do so anyway.

All the other industries would remain as well, from jeans and shoes to toys and household goods and everything else. The factories would no doubt be hurt by the loss of revenue from Apple, however, as would the workers, who typically earn more from these types of factory jobs than they can otherwise earn in the region. The increase in unemployment following an Apple pullout would probably only make that situation worse. But it would go on.

Once upon a time in the Western world, though not too long ago, we had children working in factories and mines for fractions of pennies. We had had working conditions almost unimaginable even in in China or other, similar, out-sourced locations. We had them until, as a society, they became intolerable to us and we forced the cultural and legal changes necessary to stop them. To say they would no longer be tolerated. (Though sadly, they still persist in some of the darker cracks of our society.).

China will have to face this as well. With or without Apple. With or without the linkbait of major media outlets. With or without the protests of the guilty-of-concience, opportunistic of cause, or patronizing of agenda. With or without the attention of a readership that increasingly only mortgages their attention for linkbait and opportunism.

There's a real story here. A story about China's industrialization, of the political pressures within the government, the suicide rates in the country as a whole, the earning potential inside and outside the factory system, the ratio of worker pay verses management profit in the factories, the costs associated and benefits gained through in-sourcing vs. out-sourcing, and how the lives of Chinese workers would be affected now, and in the many potential futures with, without, and beyond the factory system.

But it's a story that won't be written, because it won't get anywhere near the amount of clicks, because absent Apple it won't get anywhere near the mainstream reaction. It's a vicious cycle of our own creation.

That's why boycotting Apple because of working conditions in China makes about as much sense as boycotting The New York Times" because of journalism conditions in America.

While Apple probably wishes they'd really locked down the trademark rights to the iPad name long ago, the folks at Proview Technology in Shenzhen have a prior claim to the name and they're taking Apple to court over it. They're asking Apple stop selling the iPad in China (which only went on sale in the area recently), and demand an apology. Proview Shenzhen had registered the trademark in 2001, but their sister company, Proview Taiwan, had sold the rights to the iPad name to a UK firm, even though the Taiwanese company didn't have rights to the trademark. Despite that, a UK company then sold the rights to Apple, which now counts iPad on their official trademark list. Apple had known about this whole mess, and had sued Proview Shenzhen last year to assert their claim to "iPad", but had lost the suit. Now it looks like Proview is taking the fight to Apple.

Apple still doesn't own ipad.com, and with this trademark issue lingering, there's a clear gap in their IP rights. It's not like they don't have enough money to throw at the problem, and that said, odds are slim that this trademark suit will pose any serious roadblock to the advance of iPad in China.

Proview makes outdoor LED lighting, so it's not like there's any real competitive overlap here; they probably just want a big fat payoff, and it's hard to blame them. 

We'll be keeping an eye on the lawsuit's progress following the initial hearing this month.

Source: China Daily

Beijing Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, has announced that they're aiming to release the iPhone 4S by the beginning of March, and that the final regulatory certifications just made it through on Monday. As you might guess,  iPhone launches in the area can get a little crazy, but with wider carrier availability, maybe the congestion and panic will let up a bit. Currently, the iPhone 4S is only available on China Unicom, though there have been hints that China Mobile will enjoy the next-gen iPhone.

It's interesting to hear more about the retail side of the iPhone in China, since the vast majority of news from that corner of the world revolves around Apple's manufacturing partner, Foxconn.  I'm sure by this point, Apple's retail presence isn't sullied by knock-off stores anymore, even though there's still plenty of copycat devices floating around.

There's no pricing information available for the CDMA-based iPhone 4S on China Telecom, but something tells me a steep pricetag won't deter the locals from snatching 'em up.

Source: China Daily

Apple has put an online lottery reservation system in place for iPhone 4S pre-orders in order to prevent Hong Kong scalpers from reserving iPhones. This comes after initial sales were cancelled due to riots and crowds.

The new reservation system no longer allows someone to reserve an iPhone without inputting full credentials that match a government issued ID. This is meant to keep out scalpers who use bots to snag up phones in the reservation system.

Due to high demand, we are accepting a limited number of iPhone reservations per day. To request an iPhone reservation, please choose your store and the iPhone you want. If we have an iPhone reservation for you, you’ll receive a confirmation email by 9:00 p.m. tonight that includes the time when you can pick up your iPhone tomorrow. A government-issued photo ID matching the name and ID number on your reservation is required for iPhone purchases. If you don’t receive an email, we were unable to reserve an iPhone for you, and you can try again another time. Only those who receive an email confirming their reservation will be able to purchase an iPhone; we will not be selling iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to walk-in customers.

Apple has also stated it will not sell the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S on a walk-in basis.

I know launches around the Chicago area get crazy at times but I can't ever imagine Apple needing to implement a system like this state-side. You can read the full message from Apple below.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook has followed up on the New York Times story about the human cost of manufacturing iPhones, iPads, and Macs in China with an email to Apple internal employee. In short, he takes issue with the Times.

As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are. For the many hundreds of you who are based at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites around the world, or spend long stretches working there away from your families, I know you are as outraged by this as I am. For the people who aren’t as close to the supply chain, you have a right to know the facts.

Cook went on to note that Apple wants to educate workers about their rights. Apple wants to empower them to speak up when they are unfairly or mistreated. Cook claims more than a million people have already been trained under Apple's program. Cook was also sure to mention that it's his belief that no other company has taken more or better steps than Apple has with their workplace efforts.

The employee emails were semi-frequent under the late Steve Jobs and they've been regular under Tim Cook as well. Jobs was also fond of the open letter. Perhaps we'll start to see those from Cook as well, and this incredibly important issue will get the attention and publicity it deserves.

You can read Tim Cook's full email sent out to Apple employee's via the link below.

Source: 9to5Mac

Team,

The New York Times is reporting on the human cost of manufacturing iPhones, iPads, and other electronics in China. While Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others are also mentioned, Apple gets most of the focus, no doubt because they have the highest profile. The article details how suppliers approach Apple and what Apple requires of them to produce the devices we all use on a daily basis -- the cost of parts, salaries, and more importantly, the impact on human lives.

“The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,"

"And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”

Many of these cuts come at not only the expense of their workers but to their safety as well. A former Apple executive familiar with the supply process agrees that safety and cutting margins has long been an ongoing issue in China -

“You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well,”

“If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

A recent explosion in an iPad 2 facility resulted in 2 fatalities with many more injured. The advocacy group Sacom in Hong Kong also published a report warning of unsafe conditions, issues with aluminum dust, and poor ventilation. Debby Chan Sze Wan of Sacom says a copy of the report was sent to Apple. After receiving no response, she flew to Cupertino.

"A few months later I went to Cupertino, and went into the Apple lobby, but no one would meet with me. I’ve never heard from anyone from Apple at all.”

Apple has been making moves to address some of the concerns, including publishing a Supplier Responsibility Progress Report that lists several companies that have continually been found in violation of safety regulations every year since 2007. The problem doesn't just lie with Apple but with many technology companies that continuously pressure suppliers to cut their margins. It's worth pointing out that Apple is the only company that's releasing a supplier list and providing transparency. We're still waiting on other companies to do the same.

And the countries themselves can't be let off the hook either. They want the jobs and money Apple and other manufacturers are creating and providing, and have not yet put in place regulations to safeguard their citizens and workplaces. Perhaps they fear if they do, Apple and other companies will just go elsewhere. But that's a reason, not an excuse.

Source: The New York Times

Apple has postponed selling the latest iPhone 4S in some stores in mainland China after crowd disturbances spoilt its launch day. The main trouble appeared outside of the Apple Store in Sanlitun Beijing.

Would-be customers, many of whom had waited over night in the freezing cold to be among the first to purchase the latest iPhone, became so unruly when the store failed to open its doors on-time that Apple was forced to cancel first-day sales there. And rather than risk a repeat of the incident — which ended in profanity, egg-throwing and a few scuffles, the company has decided not to sell the 4S at any of its retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Instead, it will sell the device through its Web site and carrier partners.

Source: All Things D, Image: MIC Gadgets

Apple has now confirmed that January 13 is the official date the iPhone 4S will go on sale on in China, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda.

“Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever.”

This comes just a week after Apple finished the necessary steps to obtain approval for the iPhone 4S to go on sale in China, and officially marks the fastest iPhone product rollout in Apple's history.

Source: Apple

Fortune is reporting that Apple has completed the required steps necessary to bring the iPhone 4S to mainland China by January 23rd.

the People's Daily, the official news organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, reports that a device with the same model number as the iPhone 4S (A1431) passed the final hurdle, obtaining its China Compulsory Certification on Dec. 21. That gives Apple plenty of time to get the iPhone in the hands of retailers before the Chinese New Year, the biggest shopping event on China's calendar. It falls this year on Jan. 23.

This is big news for Apple given the size of the Chinese mobile market. According to statistical analysis by mobiThinking, China currently leads worldwide mobile growth with over 5.3 billion subscribers, and Apple would do well in further extending their reach by getting a hand in that cookie jar.

Source: Fortune, mobiThinking

Foxconn is planning to double the size of their iPhone factory in China at a cost of $1.1 billion dollars, according to Chinese news site China Daily.

The base will be centered on the Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou, provincial capital of Henan, increasing its current production lines to 95, said the Henan provincial development and reform commission during a conference. The expansion plan, costing 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), is expected to bring $20 billion in sales revenue in 2012, the commission said.

Foxconn is Apple's largest contractor and this new plant will be employing around 130,000 workers who will subsequently be able to pump out around 200,000 iPhones per day. That's around 18 million iPhones per quarter.

Add in other contractors, and consider that Apple has the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S currently available in the retail market, and it gives us a hint at Apple's own estimates on the amount of iPhone sales we'll be seeing throughout 2012.

Approaching 100 million.

Source: China Daily

Market research firm Distimo has issued a new report detailing the huge gains the App Store has made in China.

When comparing the two countries, the Chinese App Store for iPhone devices was just 18 percent of download volume vs the U.S. at the beginning of 2011. By November, that share had climbed to 30 percent, meaning China jumped from less than a quarter to nearly a third over a 10-month period. The numbers are even more interesting when examining the iPad: China’s take is just south of 50 percent of combined downloads between the two countries.

This doesn't come as a huge surprise given the size of the Chinese market. More interesting, however, is that iPad app downloads have now jumped up to a staggering 50 percent of App Store sales for Apple, making it a straight split between the two markets.

China is now the second largest market for Apple next to the U.S. as of June, and it doesn't look like they'll be loosing momentum anytime soon.

Source: GigaOM

Police in Shanghai, China have discovered a group of five people assembling and selling fake versions of the iPhone. Those arrested are thought to be part of an organised gang that were buying in parts from Guangdong in southern China and assembling them in rented apartments in Shanghai. Some of the parts being used are even thought to be genuine components used in the assembly of the actual iPhone 4. About 200 fake iPhones were found during the raid on the apartments.

The cost to make one fake iPhone, which used some genuine parts, was around 2,000 yuan ($313). It was sold on unauthorised markets and on the Internet for around 4,000 yuan, only a few hundred yuan cheaper than the real iPhone, the newspaper said. The fake iPhones had the same functions as the genuine ones but had a shorter battery life, it quoted the police as saying.

Source: Reuters, China Daily

After the discovery of a fake Apple Store in the Chinese city of Kunming last month, Chinese authorities have now discovered that there are a total of 22 unauthorized Apple retailers operating in the same area.

China's Administration for Industry and Commerce in the Yunnan provincial capital said the stores have been ordered to stop using Apple's logo after Apple China accused them of unfair competition and violating its registered trademark, state media said on Thursday.

[Reuters]

Dayliss and YCWB report that McGyver-like Chinese smugglers have taken to using ingenious cable and pulley systems, launched from home-spun crossbows and catapults, to smuggle iPhones and iPads back into China. M.I.C. Gadget sums up:

The iPad and iPhones were transported over a small river that separates the booming city of Shenzhen from the rural northern part of Hong Kong using an elaborate pulley system. The cable was shot across the border using a crossbow and the Apple products were flying across at night, which store in black nylon bags. The cable was suspended to a high-rise building in the Chinese border town of Shenzhen, and goods were moved several hundred meters from a small village house located in Hong Kong

No word on whether or no Jackie Chan or Chris Tucker were instrumental in helping Chinese and Hong Kong customs crack the smuggling ring, but we have our suspicions!

[Dayliss and YCWB via M.I.C. Gadget]

Video after the break.

The iPhone 5 hasn’t been launched yet, we don’t have any real idea what it will look like either. That hasn’t stopped the Chinese market for fake handsets to get one out the door already! Are we surprised? Not at all.

If we imagine for a moment, that the knockoff shown above, or in the video after the break, is based on some inside information on the iPhone 5 design, what do you think? It looks like a softened iPhone 4 design with a few more curves and an iPhone 3GS type curved rear.

Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz is so sure this design is accurate, he's staked all his body hair and future meat consumption on it...

[Cult of Mac, Gizmodo, @jesusdiaz]

What do you do if you’re a maker of fake iPhones in China and the police are battering your door in? Throw them out of your window that’s what! Not really the best idea if you happen to be on the eighteenth floor though...

This is what happened recently at a Shenzhen shop, when four fake iPhone dealers took the decision to dump their inventory to avoid prosecution. They tried to throw nearly one thousand cloned smartphones out of the eighteenth story window. Some of the phones were even said to be labelled as the yet to be announced iPhone 5! The police finally caught them burning transaction records but managed to recover a customer database.

Luckily no one in the street below was hurt but several cars and fences were damaged when it started raining fake phones!

[Cult of Mac]

A new rumor says Apple may be seeing supply constraints for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 due to material and labor shortages at a Foxconn facility in Chengdu, China.

Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reportedly facing a shortage of both labor and materials at its plants in Chengdu, China, which is likely to affect shipments of iPad 2 and iPhone 4 orders in the second quarter, according to sources from upstream component makers.

They claim Apple estimates quarterly sales for the iPhone 4 at around 20-22 million units and iPad 2 in the 10 million unit range. Foxconn prepared these facilities to accommodate roughly 40 million iPad 2 units annually, and although the China plant in question doesn't push out as much iPad 2 volume as their Shenzen plant, the impact could still be measurable if consumers find it difficult to pick up the tablet as demand grows.

This also goes against comments made by Apple COO Tim Cook during their quarterly earnings call where he indicated Apple felt confident with their iPad 2 supply plans, and that they should subsequently have an easier time meeting demand going forward.

We're hoping this rumor is off-base but your guess is as good as ours. Let us know what you think in the comments!

[Digitimes]

It looks like our good friends over at 9 To 5 Mac and iFixYouri have managed to get their hands on what might just be an iPad 2 display fresh from the assembly lines in China. According to them, the display is lighter as well as just over a 1 mm thinner than the current generation iPad display. The frame around the screen is also noticeably smaller as well.This seems to make sense as all of Apple's products have been getting smaller and thinner recently, and reducing the iPad's weight would be a huge plus.

The part number (LP097X02-SLN1) appears to be an LG Phillips 9.7in XGA 1024×768 H-IPS display, which is the same resolution as the current iPad. This matches up with theories that it's still too expensive to go to a 2x 2048x1536 Retina Display this year, and it's a non-starter for developers to go 1.5x or anything in between.

Check out some candid shots of both displays after the break and let us know -- would you be happy with this display in iPad 2?

[ 9 To 5 Mac ]

Looks like the CDMA variant of Apple's iPhone might eventually make its way to carriers in China, Korea, and Japan. According to the not always reliable Digitimes, Apple suppliers currently expect around 7 million CDMA iPhones to be sold in the first quarter of 2011. That's a lot of iPhones, no matter how you look at it.

Apple's two main suppliers, Foxconn and Pegatron are also slated to turn a large profit this year due to the release of a CDMA variant. Foxconn started shipping the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4 back in December 2010, while Pegatron has started shipping this month. Digitimes maintains that Foxconn will ship solely to the United States while Pegatron will ship to other countries such as China, Japan, and Korea. The Verizon iPhone is set to double the number of iPhone users in the market alone. With these other countries added to the CDMA list, the iPhone will be available to a whole new array of customers as well.

I'd say with the GSM and CDMA variants set to be available on even more carriers and in more countries, Apple is in for a year of record numbers. It's also great that customers in the US now have a choice. And if you're in the US and not sure which to pick, take a look at our Verizon vs AT&T iPhone comparison.

[Digitimes]

The two-year AppleCare protection plan now comes standard on iPads purchased in China. In all other countries, the iPad comes with a one-year warranty for repairs and 90 days of telephone support. AppleCare extends this warranty and support to two years and can be purchased for an additional $99. Why is China so special?

The Chinese government has classified the iPad as a laptop computer, and in China, it is required by law that a two-year warranty be included with the purchase of any computer. This is extremely interesting because there have been many debates on whether the iPad is "good enough" to replace a computer or laptop. China says "yes!"

Anyone think that 2 year plan should be standard internationally?

[Bloomberg]

Apple has launched their online store for China, a streamlined store that includes the iPhone, iPod, iPad and Mac product lines. The store also includes free shipping, an option for custom engravings on your iPod or iPad, and it is also the only place online where you can currently grab the iPod Nano in the (PRODUCT RED) variant. From Apple COO Tim Cook:

We are thrilled to open our newest online store in China. With personalized engraving, configure-to-order options and free shipping on everything, the Apple Store is a great destination for our customers in China.

To top it off, Apple has made their App Store available in Simplified Chinese, making it easier for citizens of China to access the 300,000+ apps available for the iPhone and iPod touch (or at least as many of them as are offered in China).

Slowly but surely, Apple is extending their offerings throughout Asia, one of the biggest consumer electronic markets on the planet, and should have 25 more retail stores in China by the end of 2011.

But in the land of cheap-as-in-unlicensed Windows PC and Android variants we've never heard of, will it be enough? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[Apple]

by Andrew Wray

Apple announced last night that iPhone 4 would be headed to China on September 25, availability will be via:

Apple Retail Stores including the new Apple Store® Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai and the new Apple Store Xidan Joy City in Beijing opening on the same day. iPhone 4 will also be available on Saturday at China Unicom retail stores for qualified buyers with a new two year contract.

And pricing:

iPhone 4 will be sold in China through Apple’s retail stores for a suggested retail price of CNY4,999 for the 16GB model and CNY5,999 for 32GB model without a contract. At China Unicom stores, iPhone 4 will be available for qualified buyers with a new two year contract, sold separately. For pricing and tariff information please visit www.10010.com.

Needless to say that's a huge market that, thanks to unlocked (officially and otherwise) iPhones from other countries, already has a huge gray market. It will be interesting to see how an official Chinese version does this time around, especially with the continued lack of a China Mobile model. Any bets?

[Apple PR, thanks Geo Coldz)

iPad is now available in China, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, as previously announced, and it looks like celebrating new Apple gears is a cross-cultural, seemingly universal phenomena.

[Han Ziwen became the first iPad owner in mainland China today, and was carried out of the Beijing Apple store on employees' shoulders. He even made a t-shirt for the occasion: "I BUY IPAD NO 1". Image via Getty]

Cue the folk music. Then go enjoy your new iPads.

[Gizmodo]

Looks like iPhone 4 will hit China Unicom next month, and with Wi-Fi to boot. Apparently the iPad is coming as well, but not at the same time -- or any time specified at all yet.

Previous versions of the iPhone in China have controversially not included Wi-Fi and suffered in sales compared to real iPhones sold unlocked in Hong Kong or smuggled in via the gray market.

Still no word on China's largest carrier, China Mobile, or whether or not any of the CMDA technology Apple is apparently cooking up is Chinese CDMA.

[Market Watch via AppleInsider]

While it's easy to think the iPhone 3GS is everywhere now, TiPb still gets email asking when it will be in India, and on the largest carrier in the largest market in the world, China Mobile.

Well Macworld tells us Airtel has finally announced they'll be bringing the iPhone 3GS to India:

New Delhi, March 19, 2010 : Bharti Airtel and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3GS, the fastest most powerful iPhone yet, to India in the coming months. For information please visit www.airtel.in/iphone3gs. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone .

Meanwhile, Financial Times [registration required] reports that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is still interested as well, providing Apple addresses their special radio needs:

"including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do - RIM is doing it". But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.

MacRumors points out that while China Mobile is a monster, their 3G customer base remains small, but should grow from 3.4 to 10 million this year.

Either way, these represent two holes in Apple's iPhone coverage and it's nice to see at least one of them getting filled.

One would think that if the iPhone went on sale in the Chinese market it would sell like mad. So far, this is simply not the case as one of the largest Chinese online retailers, Taobao.com, has sold a total of five iPhones within the first two weeks of the device being available. China Unicom is also a seller of the phone but as of today, no official numbers have even been released.

With these poor sales aside, the iPhone is indeed very popular in China because of the unlocked devices that have been sold on the black market since the first generation iPhone was released back in 2007. If you take that into consideration and throw in the facts that the official version now being sold has been stripped of WiFi along with the ability to use pre-paid SIMs, both of which are very popular in China, you can see why people flock to the black market.

As it stands now, the iPhone is a flop in China. At least through official channels...

[Via Cult of Mac]

No big sales in China, it seems, and no big surprise given the low initial numbers we saw, and the prevalence -- and huge pre-existing install base -- of black and gray-market iPhones (with wifi!) smuggled into the country. And if that sounds apologist'ic, yeah, sorry. But iLounge is reporting:

Taobao.com, the largest Chinese e-commerce web site reports that it has sold only two 8GB iPhones and three 16GB iPhones since it began selling them on Nov 22nd.

So, sky fallen for the iPhone in China? Still falling? No one cares because they all have unlocked iPhones anyway?

Today's the day -- the iPhone officially launches in China on China Unicom. We say officially because it's been available unofficially, in gray market form, since the original iPhone 2G was launched, and with winks and nudges via Apple's unlocked sales in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

So will international sales tumble as the world's biggest market can buy it at home? Will Chinese sales lag in favor of sticking with the unofficial versions from overseas or future Chinese versions that, you know, include Wi-Fi? Or will iPhone numbers just continue to grow, grow, grow?

Either way, welcome China, to the iPhone world!

According to Business Insider, the mythical iTablet is imminent due to the unnamed, unverified, unspecified travel of someone at Apple who does... something:

a source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the Internet.

A friend of a friend -- no names! -- asked TiPb what will end up being more ridiculous, iPhone rumors or iTablet rumors. We answered -- yes!

Anyone have an iTablet case (with or without camera hole!) they want to leak our way?

Looks like China Unicom is set to launch the iPhone 3G 8GB (sans WiFi) for $300, which might sound expensive compared to the US $99 price, but here's the no-shadow kick -- the monthly plan is $20.

Granted, there's likely no one in the world who feels their iPhone plan is cheap -- and many who likely feel it ranges from expensive to exorbitant, but $20 a month compared to $70 or $100? Taken for one year that maths up to $240 vs. $840 or $1200. Two years, that's $480 vs. $1680 or $2400. Three years... you get the idea (likely painfully and right in the wallet). Makes that $200 up front savings pretty insignificant doesn't it.

Of course, the aforementioned lack of WiFi may make non-Chinese iPhone owners feel a little better about themselves, and there's still no way to know how the Internet in general, never mind the App Store will survive the Great Firewall of China.

Hao bu hao?

[Xinhua via Fortune]

As anticipated -- and anticipated again and again -- China Unicom has finally announced that the iPhone is coming to China:

On 28 August, the Company and Apple reached a three-year agreement for the Company to sell iPhone in China. The initial launch is expected to be in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009. This will provide users with brand new communication and information experience.

Now all that's left is to find out if it will have, you know, WiFi, an App Store, etc...

(via Engadget)

Apple's on-again, off-again (on again, off-again, ad infinitum) negotiations to get the iPhone into China seem to be on again -- we think. Honestly, it's impossible to tell anymore so until an Apple exec actually announces it on stage (in September?) or we see millions of Chinese ditching their gray-market, WiFi-enabled international iPhones for state sanctioned China Unicom, we'll just keep waiting (and waiting) and seeing...

Still, with a handset as popular as the iPhone and a market as HUGE as China, it really is only a matter of time.

[Via the Wall Street Journal]

That rumored deal whereby China Unicom was purchasing 5 million Wi-Fi-less iPhones for a huge introduction to the world's biggest cellular market? Turns out not so much with the 5 million according to a China Unicom spokesperson.

"Talks between us and Apple have been going on for some time, but no agreement has been reached yet," said Unicom spokesman Yi Difei. "There are all kinds of possibilities. There is no particular timetable for the talks."

We get it, big deal, big complications. Still, the iPhone has to hit China sometime, right? (Other than, you know, massive amounts of gray market imports...)

[Cellular News via Engadget Mobile]

China Unicom, the second largest mobile carrier in the world's largest mobile market, has reportedly bought 5 million iPhones from Apple as it makes ready to launch the device in September.

These won't be the same iPhones sold in the rest of the world, however, as they'll be using China-specific WCDMA radios, and will also lack Wi-Fi. Aiya. That, of course, leaves the door open for gray market iPhones -- a staple in the nation since the original iPhone 2G launch in 2007 -- to linger around and compete with the official, crippled version. (Insert Verizon joke here if you must).

Also changing according to the report is Apple's share of the money. While they typically get 20-30% of profits, they'll be making do with 1000-1100 Yuan per unit under terms of this deal (which allegedly may run as long as 3 years).

Either way, and long-in-the-making though it may be, it's a huge deal for Apple and the iPhone in a huge market. Guess we'll see what this does for Gartner's numbers next year...

(International Business Times via Apple Insider)

CNN Money's Fortune blog is rounding up news about a potential Apple deal with China Unicom to finally bring the iPhone to China.

The story is this: Shanghai Security News reported a 3-year deal for China Unicom's 600+ million subscriber base. China Unicom's spokesperson told Reuters:

"Discussions are still ongoing, we have not reached any formal agreement,"

The great unknowns, however, remain whether China will allow Wi-Fi, the full App Store, and other features rumored to be on China's "no go" list.

Apple, of course, still sells officially unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong and similar markets for those who can afford a premium for standard iPhone.

[Thanks to Andrew for the tip]

UPDATE: Looks like and the original post is MIA, so we're keeping the ship steady, banking left, and redirecting unboxing lovers to iTalkiPhone for the rest of the gallery. (Thanks Taylor!)

ORIGINAL: Looks like someone's scored the first pictures of an iPhone 3G S, unboxed and in the wild. Pretty much what everyone expected -- looks just like the iPhone 3G but has some nifty new software like the Compass App (complete with re-calibration instructions), voice control, etc. but still drool-worthy none the less.

A few more pics after the break, but check out their full gallery for all gadget pr0n goodness!

iLounge reports that they've been told the next generation iPhone will come in two storage capacities (we'd guess 16GB and 32GB) and three radio flavors, 3G, 3.5/3.75G, and China CDMA. Consumers won't be able to choose which radio model they buy, each carrier in each local region will simply offer the one that best suits their network. Some choice in color -- black or white? -- should remain.

The design is said to be roughly the same with the exception of a new, more scratch-resistant matte finish for the back plate, which has been rumored for a while now.

And no, unfortunately, Chinese CDMA won't run on Sprint or Verizon in the US. Different frequencies.

In a move designed to make even notorious Wi-Fi stripper Verizon seem liberal by comparison, China Mobile's outstanding demand that Apple strip the iPhone of both Wi-Fi and 3G if they want to sell to the worlds largest carrier just got an uncomfortable shot of "maybe" via Apple Insider:

while there's no concrete information to suggest Apple would agree to make such concessions, references to "ChinaBrick" discovered in betas of iPhone Software 3.0 leave room for debate.

Also at issue, China Mobile wants control of the regional App Store. Without 3G or Wi-Fi, would there even be a point?

And we'd joked about AT&T...

Commercial Times is raising the bar on crazy rumors by claiming Apple will release not just one, not even two, but a whopping three new iPhones this summer.

• First would be the next-generation iPhone previous rumors have pointed to, with beefed up processors and features like the camera.

• Second would be a throwback of sorts to the original iPhone, dropping HSPA 3G in favor of EDGE 2.75G to lower costs and smash what little umbrella was left competitors.

• Third would be a special version to support a CDMA carrier in China, allowing Apple to penetrate that last, largest of markets. (And with the mere mention of CDMA, cue baseless Verizon rumors in 3... 2... ) [Note: Chinese CDMA bands won't work on Verizon -- hence baseless]

While TiPb has been on the next-gen bandwagon as a long as anyone, I have to admit the other two I'm not as sure about. Even though I mentioned the possibility of an EDGE-again iPhone on Twitter this weekend, Sacha Segan from PCMag was quick to point out a problem: AT&T is cutting EDGE capacity in favor of 3G. And like Giz says in the link below, Apple's never been a retro-embracing company...

Would anyone be interested in an uber-cheap (free on contract, low EDGE data plan) version of the iPhone? Or is it Next Gen or nothing? And could we see a world where people are smuggling CDMA iPhones out of China?!

[via Gizmodo via Slashphone]

Ok, well Apple is really not selling $200 iTunes gift cards for only $2.60 so keep dreaming. But according to Music Ally Chinese "pirates" have hacked the algorithm that generates the iTunes gift cards and so now fake cards are flooding the market for as low as $2.60 in China. When we say flooding we literally mean flooding the Chinese market:

Apparently six months ago, a $200 card went for around 320 RMB (roughly $47), but the price has since plummeted to around 18 RMB ($2.60) as more sellers pile in.

With the iPhone 3G getting ready to make an appearance in China it should be interesting to see just how Apple responds to this. Apple will more than likely make a quick change to nullify the pirates ability to create these cards but it's not like you can do away with the ones already in circulation as there is no easy way to decipher a bogus card from one that is legit (unless they have some super secret Apple wonder-ETL and ad-hoc query/number-crunching monster we don't know about).

[Via Music Ally]

Aiya! There's still no iPhone officially available in the world's most populous country, the People's Republic of China. Sure, Apple actually sells unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong and Taiwan in an attempt to lure the most affluent Chinese customers to their platform -- and lets not forget the monstrous iPhone 2G black market -- but absent homegrown carrier subsidies and support, it will never attain most-favored device status.

Previously the problem was China Mobile wanting to strip out the 3G and WiFi. The latest holdup? The App Store, according to Interfaxchina (via Ars). China Mobile doesn't seem to like the idea of Apple running its own software service right on the phone, and would prefer to handle all that on their own end. Heh. So would AT&T, Rogers, Vodafone, and all the other oppressive, myopic, oligopolistic carriers around the world. The lure of the iPhone and its data-gulping customers let Apple one-inch-punch their way right through that tired old carcass, but China...?

China's still wearing the iron vest of feature control furor.

So the raised platform is set, the combatants have taken their corners, and the rules remain: knockout or knockoff. Who's going to win this battle?

We're still considering these iPhone nano rumors to be way over on the far side of fetched, by they just keep on keeping on, so here's the latest (via MacRumors):

DigiTimes highlights a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily News stating that two chip manufacturers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation, are expected to receive chip orders for Apple's rumored iPhone nano. The report states that orders would likely come in March, leading to a June release of the iPhone nano at the earliest. [...] Meanwhile, American Technology Research analyst Brian Marshall believes that the iPhone nano will not initially be launched in the United States.

Marshall (via International Business Times) bases this claim on no word of AT&T testing an iPhone nano, and then leaps to the speculation that China would be a likely place to the launch the new device.

Aiya.

If this is not bizarre, I don't know what is. Customers looking to purchase a iPhone 3G in China will soon be able to do so. Just a little catch though, minus the 3G and toss in the omission of WiFi.

China Mobile does not have a 3G network so I understand them asking Apple to disable 3G but going a step further asking to disabling WiFi as well?! That leaves all of the owners of the iPhone 3G (don't forget to take away that 3G) with a slow 2G data connection. China Mobile might as well sell the iPhone 3G as a very nice paperweight to all of their customers. Exactly why China Mobile would disable WiFi is way beyond me.

Apple ships the iPhone all over the world, so it is highly doubtful that a hardware change would be made simply for China Mobile. So how would these features be disabled? Software... Which means potential customers could still turn to hackers to gain back access to at least WiFi. It would only be a matter of time...

(Via Gizmodo)

If it's a day that ends in a "y", then its likely the status of the Apple / China Mobile talks has changed! On again/off again seems to be on again, with reports now saying the obstacles have been hurdled, the chasm bridged, the bamboo curtain rolled up to let in some sun.

But can China Mobile beat competitor China Unicom, or even the massive gray market, to the punch?

Only time, and probably a bazillion more flip flops, will tell.

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China might just be getting itself some iPhones! Oh, sure, there are already tons of iPhones in China -- almost a cottage industry of them -- but this time we're talking official from Apple, no unlock needed, spiffy new iPhone 3Gs. In China.

Not from China Mobile, who's off again, off again relationship with Apple is well documented, but from competitor China Unicom. Maybe even by August!

Hen Hao!

A huge territory with a massive subscriber base, China was one of the few countries not announced by Apple as part of the 70+ at WWDC. If true, only Russia and a few others (looking at you, Antarctica!) would stand between Apple and total global domination... (or at least market presence!)

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During our last regularly scheduled podcast, we received an dispatch from Hong Kong written by one Janric. We already knew that there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 unlocked iPhones in China alone, and Janric confirmed that you can't walk down a Hong Kong alley without tripping over somebody that has one:

I just want to comment out on the news about the 400K iPhones that are loose in china. I'm based in Hong Kong and it's no secret that you can buy the iphone here almost anywhere. The iPhone is such a hit here that I can almost see 1 iPhone per day (excluding mine ofcourse). In my office alone, there are about 5 unlocked iPhones in use.

Don't believe it? Check out these photos that Janric snapped in an area of Causeway Bay - just a random two block stroll:

We've heard firsthand reports that it's pretty much the same situation on the opposite side of the planet (Sweden) as well. So basically it's as easy to get an unlocked iPhone in areas Apple hasn't made official yet as it is to get a locked-up one in the official zones. If Apple wants to get their preferred revenue sharing going in these places, they need to step up the pace of worldwide releases.

Thanks, Janric!