Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
IPhone fails to catch fire in China
BEIJING — Apple Inc.’s iPhone has been a ringing success wherever it has been launched. But in China few are picking up the buzz.
Challenged by high pricing, missing features and stiff competition, only 5,000 iPhones have been sold since the handset debuted Oct. 30 in the world’s biggest cell phone market. By comparison, more than 1 million units were sold in the first three days when the latest iPhone was launched in North America and Europe in June.
One major hang-up might be the price. China Unicom, the state-owned mobile carrier and the exclusive partner for Apple, has been selling the phones for between $880 and $1,170 with a service plan. The devices sold in China also don’t feature Wi-Fi. U.S. devices have Internet capability and sell for between $199 and $299 with a two-year service plan.”They’re not exactly flying off the shelves,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of research company BDA China Ltd. “The consumer will quickly figure out it doesn’t have Wi-Fi. ... At the end of the day, it won’t be a winning strategy.”
With 700 million cell phone users and growing, China represents the largest battleground for mobile phone makers and software developers. Apple faces stiff competition from technology rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and BlackBerry’s Research in Motion for market share. Finland’s Nokia sells the most mobile phones in China.
Although iPhone sales so far have failed to meet analysts’ modest expectations, China Unicom officials said they were unfazed by the initial numbers, telling reporters in Hong Kong recently that the device was priced appropriately for a two-year service contract.
Apple declined to comment.
In China, many people have been buying gray-market iPhones — versions that have been smuggled into China from abroad and reprogrammed to work with Chinese networks. There are estimated to be as many as 2 million gray-market iPhones in China.
Clark of BDA China said the disappointing initial sales of the phone also were due to the lack of a Wi-Fi feature on China Unicom’s iPhone — a standard function for all other iPhones including gray-market models.
Chinese regulators previously had banned Wi-Fi in order to promote a domestic version of the same technology.
Challenged by high pricing, missing features and stiff competition, only 5,000 iPhones have been sold since the handset debuted Oct. 30 in the world’s biggest cell phone market. By comparison, more than 1 million units were sold in the first three days when the latest iPhone was launched in North America and Europe in June.
One major hang-up might be the price. China Unicom, the state-owned mobile carrier and the exclusive partner for Apple, has been selling the phones for between $880 and $1,170 with a service plan. The devices sold in China also don’t feature Wi-Fi. U.S. devices have Internet capability and sell for between $199 and $299 with a two-year service plan.”They’re not exactly flying off the shelves,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of research company BDA China Ltd. “The consumer will quickly figure out it doesn’t have Wi-Fi. ... At the end of the day, it won’t be a winning strategy.”
With 700 million cell phone users and growing, China represents the largest battleground for mobile phone makers and software developers. Apple faces stiff competition from technology rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and BlackBerry’s Research in Motion for market share. Finland’s Nokia sells the most mobile phones in China.
Although iPhone sales so far have failed to meet analysts’ modest expectations, China Unicom officials said they were unfazed by the initial numbers, telling reporters in Hong Kong recently that the device was priced appropriately for a two-year service contract.
Apple declined to comment.
In China, many people have been buying gray-market iPhones — versions that have been smuggled into China from abroad and reprogrammed to work with Chinese networks. There are estimated to be as many as 2 million gray-market iPhones in China.
Clark of BDA China said the disappointing initial sales of the phone also were due to the lack of a Wi-Fi feature on China Unicom’s iPhone — a standard function for all other iPhones including gray-market models.
Chinese regulators previously had banned Wi-Fi in order to promote a domestic version of the same technology.
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