China Unicom Rumoured to Have Placed Order for 5 Million IPhones

China Unicom is reported to have placed an order with Apple for five million of its iPhone handsets. The Chinese operator has been generally expected to announce a deal with Apple in the near future, after talks lasting well over a year with Apple to secure the handset resale rights.

China Unicom's chairman Chang Xiaobing has previously confirmed that the company is in talks with Apple over an option to sell the iPhone handset in the country, but declined to elaborate on the talks, citing confidentiality agreements.

Zhou Youmeng, deputy general manager of Guangdong Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom in South China's Guangdong province told the China Business News that the first batch of iPhones of China Unicom version would be put on the market in September in part of 3G business outlets of the telecom service operator.

An unnamed source within Guangdong Unicom told the newspaper that Apple has agreed to drop its revenue sharing model in order to enter the country.

In exchange for the applications and airtime revenue share, China Unicom was recently reported to have made minimum sales commitments of at least a million units within the first year. Although the figure looks easily reachable for the size of the Chinese market, most of the early adopters have already brought an iPhone via grey imports. If the 5-million units order is confirmed, then Unicom will have to be surer about its ability to market the handset.

On the web: China Business News

Posted to the site on 12th August 2009