Apple clinches three-year deal to sell iPhone in China

Apple and China's second largest telecom operator China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd have reached a three-year deal to bring the iPhone to China, the world's largest mobile phone market with more than 680 million users.

Announcing this at a news conference in Hong Kong yesterday, state-owned China Unicom said that under the three-year deal, Apple's iPhone's would be sold in China beginning from the fourth quarter.

Unicom will purchase the handsets from Apple on an OEM basis and resell them to consumers, the Chinese telecom operator said. Although Unicom said that the iPhone would be sold at a subsidy to customers to lower the iPhone's price, the company has not put a price tag on the device.

Apple's talks with other Chinese carriers broke down over disagreements about how to share revenue, according to Chinese media. However, Unicom chairman and CEO Chang Xiaobin said the companies will not share revenue. Instead, Unicom will buy the phones in lots from Apple and offer them with subsidies.

Unicom has been talking to Apple about bringing  the iPhone to China ever since the telecom operator launched the country's first 3G service earlier this year.

Apple had earlier been in talks with China's No1 telecom player, China Mobile, since 2007 to introduce iPhones in China. But Apple turned to Unicom because its WCDMA 3G standard is more suited to Apple's iPhone 3G and its latest model, the iPhone 3GS.