China Unicom disses the iPhone, orders more Windows Mobile, Symbian phones

Figures. Everything we buy comes from China, and they turn around and thank us by choosing Japanese.

They never buy American, we let them make our stuff for us because labor is cheap, thus all the big profits. However, there are a whole lot of Iphone clones they make that gets sold to the 3rd world countries who wants the real thing but can’t afford it. They are big into making fakes. Trust me, I’ve been in Hong Kong a few times and they have a fake for anything thats considered hot.

I think you guys are missing the point… Asia is the texting capital of the world. They hardly ever use voice. They would rather text than call a person. And most do not subscribe to a monthly plan but rather stick to a prepaid plan. So using data will eat up their prepaid plans. They would rather have a keyboard than a touchscreen to quickly send a text. Have you seen them text? They can text as fast as you can talk! LOL… not even exaggerating. Every single person in Asia has a cellphone, from the poor to the rich. Nokia is still king because of their cheap handsets. Blackberry’s have gotten more attention than the iPhone ever will in that part of the world. I sent over my Motorola Q9h to a relative in the Philippines and he tells me everyone that sees it asks if it is a Blackberry. The iPhone was hot for a year and quickly died down. It’s pretty useless, unless you have a data plan. Go figure…

@Al

Europe also prefer texting to calling, stats are almost exactly like in Asia in that regard, it’s the US that is famous for still using cell phones mostly for calls. I’m European and like everyone else I know here, we all type faster on numerical keyboards using t9 (predictive text) than we can on qwerty keyboards!

What country doesn’t prefer texting over talking? lol Its so bad in the US people will text and drive instead of talk and drive no matter how unsafe it is….me included..

i dont see why the iphone is getting boring is the same thing as the first one just with a faster refresh but it still looks the same we need something new already apple!!!!!!!

“they do not share the same fervor for Apple’s mobile phone as their Japanese counterparts.” Interesting – I saw very few smartphones while in Japan this month – iPhone or otherwise. Most people I saw where using feature phones.

Yeah china is pretty much the “dumbphone” capital of the world.

Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

Does this really matter? It’s probably just the Chinese government not wanting an American company to be successful in China. And no, Windows doesn’t make phones, just a shitty OS so don’t say they are an American phone company like Apple.

perhaps the reason the iphone isn’t selling as well in china as in the rest of the world where it’s offered is that the ipod hasn’t taken off there establishing the consumer brand as well as it has elsewhere.

so, if that is the case, we can see the result of successful branding in the higher rest of world iphone sales.

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As everyone knows, the way to make an American company fail is to enter into contracts to sell the products they make and then pay them for their hardware.

4% penetration in less than a year? That is impressive no matter how you see it.

Of-course the communist Chinese are going to try and poke holes in any good American product.

From the WSJ: BEIJING — China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world’s standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations’ growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy.

The unusual proposal, made by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan in an essay released Monday in Beijing, is part of China’s increasingly assertive approach to shaping the global response to the financial crisis.

The Chinese are also “dumping” products VERY cheaply into the US to disrupt our manufacturing production even worse..i.e. Steel..

Screw China!

and they make most of the parts. goes to show the government there doesn’t want its people to be happy.

Apple fan boys, are you going to just let China neglect your precious ruler Steve Job’s wallet?! I SAY NAY! THEY WILL GIVE IN! FANBOYS CHAAAAAAAAARGE!!!!

Data Charges are Outrageous in Asia so any data dependent device in those locals are pretty much useless. What good is Google maps, a weather application, or an email client, if data is prohibitively expensive. Most folks overseas use prepaid plans because of economic circumstances and preference. Unless they come out with cheap prepaid data, the iphone / android / data intensive phones are not going to become anymore popular.

Since when did the iPhone sell well in Japan?

Lol. This is china market, not a philipine market. Maybe it cost a lot to make a call in philipine, but not in china. Don’t need to mention Asia and Asia when you don’t even know about Asia. Lol. Philipne is a poor country but china and Korea and japan are not. iPhones popularity in these country is huge and huuuuge. Actually Chinese people don’t txt much, we make many more calls than txts. It cost 10c to make a call, and it cost 10c to make a txt, the obvious answer is to make call because it’s easier and faster. If you walk on the streets, you will see lots of nokia n96, n85, n97, iPhones, and many other high end expensive phone. Money is not a problem in china. Blackberry is unknown to so many people in china. Nokia is the biggest player, still. Just the iPhone without wifi and YouTube is partially crippled and more expensive than a imported unlocked one from US.

Oh I forgot. Windows mobile occupy a considerable chunk of market share in Chinese market. It’s being used by millions users there. Number one is nokia, obviously, the number two is windows mobile, without doubt. Nokia occupy nearly 70 to 80 percent of Chinese Smartphone market and that’s especially true. Htc/dopod is well known. Apple is considered a premium brand of high quality and design. And every single mobile phone store sells unlocked iPhone imported from US or wherever else. iPhones presence is everywhere there.

Data plan from china unicom is $50 for 500mb, $80 for a gig, prepay data plan. I paid 100 or 120 for 2gig plan. It’s not too bad. They are all prepay data. China unicoms 3G speed is faster than the fix line broadband in china. 350kps over 3G, but only 200kps over a fix line broadband at home. It’s cheap, compared to what I’m paying for 3G data here in NZ.

@Harry

You’re right. It was wrong of me to generalize asia. But wow 10c to make a call or text. That is good. That data plan is pretty steep though, compared to US carriers, usually around $30 for an unlimited plan over here in the states. But I’m sure everyone in china is rich as you say money is not a problem in china. So every single person in china, korea and japan can afford it because they are not a poor country.

On the smartphone side of the business, if Apple does once again report good numbers, it’ll be one of the few in that industry. Despite constant attempts by rival handset makers to produce the “iPhone killer,” Apple’s main competitors in the smartphone world have struggled during the most recent quarter–Nokia, Palm, and Research In Motion each posting disappointing results.

Piper Jaffray is estimating that Apple sold 7.5 million iPhones. Munster said inventory checks showed that demand for the iPhone 3GS is “outstripping supply,” which means that iPhone sales for the next several quarters should be fairly steady. We should also get an update on the number of countries and carriers that have the latest iPhone model. Apple had said in July that it was supposed to be in 80 countries by the end of the summer.

iPhone is loved by many Chinese people, including young and some rich people. But there are some reasons why China unicom does not have a good selling:
1. There are already millions of iPhone used in China before China Unicom’s. The previous ones all have WIFI connection which can lower down cost in a very large degree. Nearly more than 50 percent home broadband has WIFI. But China Unicom’s version iPhone does not support.
2. Too many people talked about iPhone for so many years. This turns it from a fashion and conspicuous phone to a common one. People uses iPhone now is considered as rich and old thought. Fashion people uses HTC Hero now.
3. It’s too expensive for many Chinese people though it’s really good. Many people turns to Meizu which costs only 2000 RMB(250 USD), less than half of iphone. The screen is good, fully touched, music is good, handwriting is excellent and also many Chinese applications.

iPhone is big in Malaysia.

There are alot of Iphones around here in china with all of the features +3GS They are just sold for 8000 RMB($1,170!)Its crazy,but they are still popular.If they were the same price as they are in the US here,I would soooooo buy one,but I just can’t afford to spend that much on a Phone,instead,I have a sony Erricson.The best choice here.