Let’s go back a few months back, China Unicom after 2 years of negociation finally find an agreement with Apple to be the exclusive provider of Iphone in China. China Mobile before China Unicom stopped discussion with Apple before that as they could not find an agreement.

So Iphone with a huge media support arrived “officially” in China end of August 2009.

iphone bus

    Full Bus body wrap in Beijing taken this morning

Problem: There were already about tens of millions of Iphone already in use in China as Sales channel already exist in all electronic markets where you can find Iphone coming from the US or HK. Prices are about the same, without a contract with any operator needed and plus you have the Wi-Fi function that has been disabled on China Unicom Iphones!!!...

To compensate those constraints, China Unicom threw huge amounts of money on advertisement: Outdoor, TV, Print, you can see it everywhere but Sales are not booming…

How long China Unicom is going to push an Iphone that buyers with a minimum of knowledge will go buy next door at the same price without an operator constraint?

After 8 months, China Unicom is still trying…