China Unicom

China Mobile wants the iPad

The world's largest cellphone carrier also wanted the iPhone, but hasn't got it yet

China Mobile (CHL) chairman Wang Jianzhou told shareholders Wednesday that the company is interested in selling Apple's (AAPL) iPad in China, according to a Reuters report.

Apple announced last week that its tablet computer is coming to Hong Kong and Singapore in July, but hasn't revealed plans for selling it in mainland China.

Wang's remarks, made at China Mobile's MORE

China Unicom: 300,000 iPhones sold

After a slow start -- and a flood of gray market devices -- official sales gather momentum

iPhonAsia's Dan Butterfield, citing Chinese press accounts, reported early Tuesday that sales Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in China have passed the 300,000 mark.

It took China Unicom (CHU), Apple's official Chinese carrier, 40 days to sell its first 100,000 iPhones and less than 20 to reach 300,000.

"The Unicom iPhone Express has steadily picked up speed and MORE

China: 100,000 iPhones in 40 days

The chairman of China Unicom finally has some sales figures to report

The numbers coming out of China since Apple (AAPL) launched the iPhone in the world's largest cell phone market have been dismal.

China Unicom (CHU) said it signed up 5,000 iPhone subscribers in the first weekend -- a number widely reported as total sales. This was followed by reports that only five iPhones had been sold through a new website MORE

iPhone hardball and soft sell in China

Apple airs its first Chinese-language ads as reports of retailer intimidation emerge

Supplementing print advertisements like the one at right, the first Apple-produced iPhone ads appeared on Chinese TV over the weekend.

They come on the heels of the device's somewhat sluggish start last month in the world's largest mobile phone market (more than 720 million subscribers).

Apple's (AAPL) local carrier, China Unicom (CHU), reported signing up only 5,000 new subscribers in the MORE

Chinese iPhones to start at $300, $18.45/mos. - update

[UPDATE: On Sept. 28, China Unicom announced an iPhone price point more than twice as high as the one in this press report. See here.]

iPhones in China will be relatively expensive, but monthly charges will be among the lowest in the world.

So says the Xinhua News Agency, the official press service of the Chinese Communist government, quoting an unnamed "insider" at China Unicom (CHU).

According the Xinhua report published early Friday, MORE

How many iPhones will Apple sell in China?

It's tempting to multiply China's 700 million mobile phone users by a percentage pulled out of a hat, and now that China Unicom has announced its deal with Apple (AAPL), everybody seems to be doing it.

Result: Published estimates of how many iPhones Apple will sell in China next year that range from a low of 1 million to a high of 14 million. Here are the numbers we've seen:

UBS analyst MORE

China Unicom signs iPhone deal

China Unicom announced Friday that it had struck a deal with Apple (AAPL) to bring the iPhone to the world's largest cellphone market.

The announcement ends months of speculation and represents a coup for China Unicom, the country's No. 2 carrier with more than 140 million subscribers. Apple's negotiations with giant China Mobile (nearly 500 million subscribers) broke down earlier this year.

"We believe China Unicom's high-speed mobile broadband network, coupled with MORE

Apple execs reportedly flying to China

Either there's a last-minute hitch that requires high-level intervention, or preparations to sell iPhones in China have entered their final stages.

"Senior officials from Apple Inc are to visit China this week, and they haven't arrived in Beijing yet," an unnamed "informed source" told the website Sina.com Monday night.

"Their visit aims to visit (sic) senior officials of China Unicom and discuss with them how iPhone should enter Chinese market," the source MORE

China's iPhone deal: New details emerge

The headlines out of China overnight Tuesday were headsnappers.

First Shanghai Security News reported that Apple (AAPL) had reached a three-year deal with China Unicom to market the iPhone in the world's largest cellphone market (600 million-plus subscribers).

Then AFP and Reuters reported what China Unicom's spokesperson told them: that the two companies were still in negotiations and no agreement had been reached (something, by the way, any company dealing with Apple MORE

Report: 'Crippled' iPhone coming to China in September

China Unicom and Apple (AAPL) have reportedly signed an agreement to launch a specially-built version of the iPhone in China, perhaps as early as September.

The report, published Friday by China Business Network, credits Hon Hai -- the world's largest manufacturer of electronics components and Apple's long-time partner -- with helping broker the deal.

Under its terms, Hon Hai -- using its tradename Foxconn -- will build a special version of the MORE