iPhone Comes to China Without Wi-Fi

The iPhone arrives in China today amid speculation that a missing feature could seriously hamper sales, according to an Associated Press report.

China Unicom starts selling iPhones Friday night at 2,000 stores reaching across the nation. It hopes to gain an edge against China Mobile, the world's biggest phone company by subscribers.

Unfortunately, China Unicom's iPhone is priced high and lacks an important feature, Wi-Fi.

"There's going to be a perception that the phone they have is dumbed down from the one that somebody has in California," said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based technology research firm. "We've seen before that Chinese consumers don't like to be treated like second-class citizens."

The retail price ranges from 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the 32GB iPhone 3GS. This is well above the $835 price charged for a Wi-Fi enabled 3GS on the black market.

Unicom's iPhones lack WiFi because it was banned by Beijing who is trying to push their own WAPI standard. The ban was lifted in May after iPhone manufacturing had already begun, meaning its likely that future iPhones will have Wi-Fi enabled.

A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, confirmed this saying, "We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year."

The real question is who will purchase an iPhone from China Unicom considering a Wi-Fi enabled version is coming within months and a cheaper, unlocked, Wi-Fi enabled phone can be easily purchased from street vendors.

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