Sales of the iPhone in China are tepid
It appears that the iPhone may not be the runaway seller in China that it has been in other countries.
In preparation for the official launch of the iPhone in China, Apple prepared 5 million units of the phone to be sold to China Unicom for $1.5 billion. Judging by first weekend sales, both companies may be regretting that decision.
According to The Wall Street Journal, first weekend sales of the iPhone in China were tepid at best. With 710 million cell phone customers in the country, the most anywhere in the world, you would think sales would have been explosive, but at least one China Unicom store reported sales of 10 units on Saturday, and only one on Sunday. This was a scenario played out all across the country this weekend, and there may be several factors at play.
One of the biggest issues is that up until May of this year, the Chinese government had banned Wi-Fi in devices such as the iPhone. The ban was lifted as the Chinese iPhone units went into production, but yet the phone still released without this wireless feature. Why the phones are still missing Wi-Fi is a mystery, but it could be seen as a definite roadblock to wide acceptance.
Secondly is the already existing gray market. Stores all across the country have been selling iPhones from other countries for some time now, with some estimates placing the number of units sold at already over 2 million. Sure Apple made its money from the units being sold elsewhere, but not where they needed it for a splashy launch.
The last point is the price. 9to5Mac wrote a recent article demonstrating just how large the price difference was between the grey market units and the official China Unicom handsets:
Unicom’s prices range from 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the high-end, 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS. This poses a second challenge for Apple in China – unlocked grey import iPhones (with WiFi) cost around 5,700 yuan ($835) in China’s street markets.
It is doubtful that the iPhone will be a complete failure in China, but it sure isn’t the launch the company was looking for.
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