Why didn't Apple just start selling unlocked iPhones in China 2+ years ago? By haggling with China Mobile and Unicom for literally years they lost a lot of time. There was no need to go through these carriers for handset distribution; that's simply not how it's done in China.

I wonder how long it will take for whatever share of Unicom's iPhone subscription revenue Apple gets to make up for the lost iPhone handset sales while Apple struggled to export the repugnant US/ATT model to China. And notice Apple finally ended up with number 2, not the gargantuan China Mobile.

To me it's just a shame to see the US/ATT model being exported to China . . . not the phone, but the model of slaving devices to carriers. One of the delights of Asia is that you buy your phone, then your network access (and change either as you wish). It's one of the reasons device uptake is stronger in China (it's common in HK for people to have multiple phones), and it makes travel across countries so much easier. The greed of carriers who want to lock consumers into long term deals (and device makers who want part of that carrier revenue stream) is causing the anti-competitive, anti-innovation US wireless telecom model to be exported.

Hope phone freedom continues to be at least one area where China outshines the US.

Why do we assume that to get into China Apple has to go through a carrier? Apple needs to export iPhones, not this US model of carrier enslavement of devices. Nokia and Motorolla have sold hundreds of millions of handsets in China without having any of them locked. And the voice and data revenues per customer are much lower in China anyway, so Apple is keeping itself out of the world's biggest market by forcing an issue that probably won't generate that much revenue for them even if they could dictate their terms. When China Mobile has 350+ million customers, they aren't going to let a co. with a single luxury phone, no matter how cool, rewrite their business model. It's a damn shame Apple is trying to export the US model of carriers locking phones to the world.

http://tinyurl.com/2gr949