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China Unicom to sell Apple iPhone in May
SHANGHAI, Mar 25, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
China Unicom (0762.HK; 600050.SH;
CHU.NYSE) confirmed Wednesday that it would start to sell Apple's
iPhone in China on May 17.
China Unicom will see both chances and challenges if introducing
iPhone to China, according to Gui Kai, an analyst from Guosen
Securities.
By introducing iPhone, it will attract more clients, expand its
market share and improve its business performance in a short term.
However, it might also have to give away large revenue share.
Wan Jinjin, an analyst from UBS Securities, said earlier in a
report that China Unicom might have to shoulder a heavy burden, since
iPhone is likely to be highly subsidized. Besides, it could limit the
business expansion by setting a threshold of average revenue per user
(ARPU) for its iPhone users.
According to Yi Difei, a China Unicom official in charge of news
release, the company will start trial operation of commercial 3G
business in 55 cities across the country on the same day. The
concrete time for official operation depends on results of the trial
operation.
Users need not to worry about shortage of terminals, since there
are plenty of WCDMA phones on the market at present.
An insider from China Unicom said that all the WCDMA phones sold
in China have been tested before and are qualified to be used for 3G
services.
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