Counterfeit iPhone in China

I don’t know how I missed this.  Perhaps I’ve been too distracted by the bright and shiny “Droid” object.

According to a recent story in Fast Company,

“China Unicom will be running its own app store independent of Apple’s, so all the apps that western users have come to know and love won’t be available on the iPhone in China.“

That disappointing bit completely escaped me.  I wonder if this explains why we haven’t seen a single sale to China since the launch.  It certainly makes me much less interested in the iPhone roll-out to the Middle Kingdom.

Apparently, in China, it’s NOT “all about the apps.”

Image Credit:  iPhone Clone or Look-alike from China?

According to AppleInsider, the launch resulted in just 5K new subscribers for China Unicom.

Another story suggests some of the reasons for the “soft” launch.  Although the reporter is still optimistic about the iPhone’s future in China, the excuses include:

• It’s too expensive.  No kidding — US$1,024 for a crippled (w/o 802.11) 32GB 3Gs
• No Wi-Fi (apparently it’s coming in a future version of the device)
• Everyone who wanted one already had a gray-market iPhone.  I’m guessing that this, coupled with China Unicom’s policy of just letting current owners legally activate on the network, was a big factor.

For what it’s worth, we haven’t sold a single app in China since the launch…

Image Credit:  Demotivation.com

I didn’t see any activity from China when I checked yesterday’s daily sales reports on iTunes Connect.  If I assume that the reports use GMT-7 (PDT) for the cutoff, we might have had a few hours of selling in China between the launch and the time the reports were generated.  I guess that today’s report will really give the first indication.  Is anybody seeing an increase in app sales coincident with the launch in China?

Image Credit:  Geek.com:  iPhone Deal with China Unicom