As of 9pm Beijing time, Apple.com.cn officially lists the iPhone’s arrival to Mainland China. From Apple: “尽早获知:iPhone 即将来到中国, 想尽早获详情？即刻注册，我们会在iPhone上市时的第一时间通知你”.
It is basically asking people to register their name and email to find out details of the iPhones arrival in China. As of this writing, the iPhone is not listed in the online Apple Store in China.
No more time for rumors, it is now official. China Unicom and Apple has officially announced the settlement of a multiyear agreement to sell the iPhone in China today. As our sources have confirmed with us earlier, they are gearing up for a fourth quarter launch this year.
Over the past few months, China Unicom kiosks have been popping up in Carrefour (the French version of Walmart) and Best Buy locations all over the Mainland after China Unicom has made agreements with both companies to help promote and sell their 3G service. The wide availability of the iPhone at these higher end locations should help obtain the right target market as well as defend against China Mobile’s Android based OPhone (the supposed China iPhone killer) also making it’s debut around the same time. The 8GB version of the iPhone (around 2,400 RMB) and 16GB version (around 4800 RMB) will also be sold at official China Unicom locations.
China Unicom press release:
UPDATE: iPhone in China is officially listed on Apple.com.cn
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