The iPhone 4S has finally been approved by Chinese regulators. Apple’s newest device today received its network approval, paving the way for carrier China Unicom to begin offering the smartphone in time for Christmas.
China Unicom, Apple’s sole carrier partner in the Asian country, told Chinese news site Sohu.com that training, testing and sales preparations are already complete. The company expects to sell the iPhone 4S without a contract for 4,999 yuan ($790).
Apple increasingly sees China as a lucrative market, the nation recently becoming the second most profitable region for the tech giant. Although the reaction to the iPhone 4S by the Chinese consumer is unknown, in November Hong Kong pre-orders sold out in 10 minutes.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
