China Unicom drops 16/32GB iPhone 4, preps 8GB model as iPhone 4S pends ...
21.05.12
) Referencing the carrier’s general manager Lu Yimin, China Unicom executives visited Apple in the Cupertino, California headquarters in order to negotiate terms. A final agreement has been reportedly reached, but everything is now in the hands of the Chinese government’s regulators tasked with issuing 3G certificates and network licenses for devices operating in the Chinese market.
China Unicom’s deputy director of research recently showed a slide at a conference depicting a next-gen iPhone with HSPA+ capabilities (21Mbps), but it turned out to be just a guessing game. Meanwhile, gray market of unlocked iPhones continues to thrive in China. China Mobile, the world’s leading carrier by revenue, doesn’t offer Apple’s handset as they allegedly want some of App Store revenue . Nevertheless, China Mobile is signing up users outside of Apple’s blessed carrier model. Of course, because the iPhone doesn’t yet support China Mobile’s flavor of 3G called TD-SCDMA, iPhone users on their network use data via WiFi hotspots or through the older 2G frequency.
Source: 9 to 5 Mac