Woops! China Unicom post iPhone Page - Guess who is bringing the iPhone to China?

Seth Weintraub
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March 24, 2009
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They don't get any better than this!  It looks like the biggest mobile market in the world will be served the iPhone by China Unicom - unless there is something very shady going on.  China Unicom's site today has the iPhone as one of the phone options available to its customers.  There is also a Flash animation on the top with the iPhone which seems to indicate that this isn't just some random mistake or hacking (or if it is, it is a pretty well thought out one).

The only other explanation we can think of is that China Unicom is just advertising which products are compatible with its new 3G service? 

See translation below.

It looks like they are also carrying the G1 Android phone.  Hope Stevo doesn't drop the hammer on them for their premature announcement.  En Anglais:

 Note that it supports WCDMA (don't get your hopes up Verizon customers, not CDMA) and will be released in July of last year.(!!)

via Networkworld

Comments (16)

Kev Orng (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 7:28am

July 2008, huh? Can't wait!

iSparrow | March 24, 2009 - 11:15am

chuckled. 

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 7:28am

Optional colour "silver back"

seems like that'll be replacing the white? are we moving away from plastic now?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 7:48am

this may be a hoax or an old web page. look at the time to market: "july 2008" notice how that point in time has passed...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 7:50am

i suppose it COULD just be a mistranslation or typo. either way it seems odd.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:01am

They could just be saying the iPhone 3G was first released in July 2008. Not necessarily in China, but elsewhere in the world.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:39am

probably. but why would the chinese give a rats ass about when it came out everywhere else. if anything id be pissed it took almost a year to arrive

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:07am

Clearly something is not right. It's a first gen iPhone in the photos. And the date even in the chinese version says 2008.

Luke Bornheimer (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:24am

You can see the 3G symbol in the top left of the phone and the calculator icon is up-to-date. I think this website is set up for the iPhone 3G and will be the base for the next iPhone, IMO.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:33am

Maybe that time to market describes the date when "ripped-off" "fake" iPhones started appearing in China? : )

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:37am

that would not surprise me in the least, and hell, its probably just a typo on the part of the Chinese, i dont see why were freaking out over something thats probably a clerical error.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:38am

More mactouch rumors please!! .......heavy on the OLED....and hold the mayo!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 8:44am

see that device above? the iphone. IT IS THE 'MACTOUCH' why would it be in apple's interest to make a tablet? it doesnt make sense... they just spent a ton of money and time on multi-touch for the macbooks, and are clearly trying to promote those over all of their other products. the people behind apple are smart enough to know not to release a 'mactouch' anytime soon.

Olternaut (not verified) | March 25, 2009 - 6:33am

Heavy on the flexible OLED and HOLD THE MAYOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

synthetic (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 9:32am

Their name looks like "China Unicorn," which is a better name anyway.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 24, 2009 - 5:56pm

AMAZING!!!