We reported earlier that one of the reasons for investing in China Unicom (CHU) may not be a good idea because of their official stores being sparsely located throughout major cities. Today we learn that Best Buy in China has been preparing for the iPhone release as early as May when Apple received a 5 year license from the national radio frequency spectrum monitoring and testing center. Along with the iPhone, Best Buy will also sell other 3G Unicom products such as data cards and service plans. The Apple Store in Beijing brings the total to three official retailers for the Chinese iPhone.
There will also be 2 versions of the iPhone set for release in China which sport different model numbers then their parallel devices in the rest of the world. The Chinese version of the iPhone 3GS Model is A1325, and the Chinese version of the iPhone 3G model is A1324. The iPhone 3GS elsewhere such as the US and Hong Kong is the A1303, the second generation iPhone 3G and first-generation iPhone only supports the 2G mobile phone models are the A1241 and A1203 respectively. According to the screenshot below from the National Radio Authority web site, the Phone will be on the GSM standard.
Apple COO, Tim Cook in an interview with iPhoneAsia Editor Dan Butterfield also said Unicom reached a sale agreement with Apple and will see the formal launch of China’s first Apple iPhone mobile phone the autumn of 2009 .
