Finally, after a long 2 year wait, Apple has officially announced the Apple iPhone with Unicom as its official network provider. But, as it always is with Apple, the Chinese versions of the iPhone will be shipping without what may be it’s most important feature, WiFi.
Yes, apple have released a WiFi-less iPhone, something that I consider very important since the iPhone’s software is kinda designed to always work best on WiFi networks. But if you Chinese guys(and ladies) can live without WiFi then you can always pick them up at 4,999 yuan($730) and 6,999 yuan($1,025). This pricing is quite strange since a regular iPhone 3GS(with wifi) can easily be bought for $835 in the black.
But this WiFi-less version of the iPhone may soon disapear considering that this initial batch was built when the Chinese government had it’s WiFi ban in force and since this was recently lifted I guess it won’t be soon before we see WiFi coming to these chinese iPhones. Maybe this is why the folks over at 163.com are reporting that there aren’t many people rushing to buy the iPhones.
Sources:
http://mashable.com/2009/10/30/china-iphone-wifi/