China Unicom: Just 5,000 iPhones Sold Since Debut
12:04 pm, November 3rd, 2009, Ed Sutherland
Customers check out the iPhone at a Beijing launch event. (photo: Bloomberg)
China Unicom executives said Tuesday the carrier has added one million subscribers since Oct. 30, but only 5,000 of those are for iPhones. The numbers from Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing are far less than the 500,000 iPhones Apple had expected to initially sell. The disappointing figures are prompting many to question whether pricing is to blame.
Although Hong Kong’s China Unicom Ltd. President Lu Yimin said the 6,999 yuan ($1,025) price was not too high for the iPhone 3GS, so-called gray market versions cost around $800 locally. The disparity may serve as “an interesting exercise in how to sell an inferior product at a higher price,” Duncan Clark, a Beijing consultant, told Bloomberg.
Friday we wrote about the lackluster opening of iPhone sales in China. citing a Wall Street Journal report describing a Beijing crowd as subdued.
Along with pricing, the iPhone was released in China sans Wi-Fi, although China Unicom hopes to have Wi-Fi back by year’s end. Also a potential sticking point for Chinese sales: competition from RIM and Android-like handsets from China Mobile Ltd., the nation’s largest mobile carrier.
While focus is currently on China Unicom, Apple has been courting China Mobile, which intends to have its own 3G network up and running by the end of 2009.
[Via AppleInsider and Bloomberg]
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News | Comment on this article
One of the big problems in China is that better, cheaper alternatives are available. But folks have to buy gray market to get WiFi and a non-ripoff price.
Meanwhile, back in the States, the market is being flooded with Android phones, which in certain regards have the iPhone beat. And folks have to jailbreak their iPhones to get them to perform as desired.
Will Apple continue to think different, or will it start to respond to what customers want? At his rate, Apple will enjoy the same single-digit market share with its phone that it has with its computers.
C’mon Apple. Stop waging war on customers. Stop trying to make it impossible to fully use the hardware. Stop trying to make one-size-fits-all.
Or keep thinking different, and restrict your market to those who only think exactly like you do.
iGenius, on November 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
5000 phones in 3 days is a very reasonable amount if one considers that pace to equal 50000 phones in 30 days/month or 600000 phones in a year. Pretty damn good, huh? Now consider that Apple could drop prices as it did in the united states over a period of time to gain added momentum. Add a wifi card in a future version, not to mention other features.
The unofficial market will shrink in due course: it has served its purpose and the supplier is Apple who can do a mercy killing for the sake of its own legitimate business in China.
WhenThinking, on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
everyone already hacked one.
Edgar, on November 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
They are too expensive. I can get a phone at my Shanghai Bestbuy that does most of what the iphone does for a quarter of the price.
I would prefer an iphone, but it’s just unjustifiably expensive. There are a lot of really good and relatively cheap handsets available.
Greg, on November 4th, 2009 at 1:59 am
“5000 phones in 3 days is a very reasonable amount if one considers that pace to equal 50000 phones in 30 days/month or 600000 phones in a year.”
It is NOT a very reasonable amount considering that they expected to sell 500,000 units in that period of time. They have 90% of their stock sitting around unsold. They have factories spitting out more and more Chinese version iPhones every hour, which will add to unsold inventory.
You can’t spin it as anything other than a disaster.
iGenius, on November 4th, 2009 at 8:35 am