Following last Friday’s announcement that Apple and China Unicom had partnered to bring the iPhone to China some felt left short of details from the very brief announcement.

What we know

  • 3-year non-exclusive deal with China Unicom
  • iPhone targeted to launch calendar Q409
  • China Unicom is said to have purchased an undisclosed number of iPhone units, rumours of that number being five million were debunked by company officials
  • Model A1324 which is based on the iPhone 3G has received a network access license
  • Model A1325 is still in testing and will be based on the iPhone 3GS
  • Model A1324 has no WiFi capabilities
    The unknowns

  • Model A1325 which is yet to be approved is said to also have no WiFi but instead have WAPI (also known as China’s WiFi) but nothing is confirmed yet
  • Third party distributors such as China Unicom’s Vsens, Gome, Suning and Carrefour are said to be helping sell the iPhone; along with Best Buy China and Wal-Mart China
  • China is requesting that iTunes/App Store servers be located in China for better “monitoring” by the government