Apple’s Official Chinese iPhone Carrier Advertises In-Store Jailbreaking

China Unicom is the only authorized and official carrier of the iPhone 4 in China, but apparently, that doesn’t mean they are content to tow Cupertino’s anti-jailbreaking line: recent advertisements for the carrier indicate that they are more than happy to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad for customers for a price.

Translated, the circled portion of the signage reads: “Supported Service: Free SIM-trimming, jailbreak, installation of more than 10 hot apps.”

How odd. Leaving aside why China Unicom would jeopardize its relation with Apple by selling jailbroken iPads and iPhones, why are they being so cheerfully helpful in allowing their customers to migrate to other networks.

We suspect that this is ultimately about censorship and warez. The promise to install “ten hot apps” is the tip-off there: by offering to jailbreak customers’ phones, China Unicom can profit from their own customers’ desire to install apps not only without paying for them, but which also haven’t been censored for the local market.

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[via 9to5Mac]

5 comments »

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John Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in iPhone, Jailbreak, News |

MacRat
iPhones are sold in the Hong Kong Apple Store and by carriers factory unlocked.
With that in mind, I am thinking this is a translation or marketing error.
http://modmyi.com Paul Acciavatti
Jailbreak ≠ unlock. The word 越狱 appears to be made up of the two Chinese characters 越 (yue), meaning to get over or jump over and 狱 (yu), meaning jail. So I think this is a jailbreak only… if it’s not totally bogus, that is.
Gazoobee
ARen’t we being a bit over-kind with the assumptions here?
This part: “(apps) which also haven’t been censored for the local market.” is total nonsense. What apps are there that the government isn’t going to allow you to get? I mean in theory yes, but seriously?
This is for stealing apps not for “evading censorship.” You buy a computer from most stores in China and it generally comes with ripped off software. This is that.
Vicente
I think you meant “toe the line”, not TOW it.
The 300 lb gorilla can sit where it wants to.
xiaoa
“Supported Service: Free SIM-trimming, jailbreak, installation of more than 10 hot apps.” A tempting slogan , if possiblem i should fly to China to purchase my iphone 4. as for as i know , ipad in Hongkong is very popular now. China is a bigger market , i heared that the High imitation mobile market is very hot in China . i worried which will affect the sales of iphone 4 and ipad !!　
good luck! Apple! lol ~ but if Chinese puchase a iphone or ipad , i suggest them get a Aneesoft iphone/ipad converter like me~~