World of Apple

China Unicom has posted photos and specifications for the current iPhone 3G on its website this week. The move comes as a sign that Apple may finally be ready to launch the iPhone in China.

The information can be seen on the China Unicom Shanghai branch website and despite not saying whether the product would be available in China it is listed along similar handsets such as the HTC G1.

Macworld UK adds that the changes to the website follow a meet between Apple and China Unicom last week which resulted in a “breakthrough in talks over offering the iPhone 3G on its network.”

It was reported in February that Apple was having little luck negotiating with China Mobile and instead began talking to China Unicom. In early March it was confirmed that the two companies were in talks.

UK based Mobile website is reporting that O2 will tweak the pricing of the iPhone in May, ahead of a new iPhone in June or July.

According to Mobile the iPhone 3G which is currently between £59 and £159 upfront will drop to free on tariffs of £35 and £45.

The report goes onto mention that Orange is in talks with Apple to allow the iPhone to be available from both O2 and Orange in the UK. Orange currently sells the iPhone in 27 other countries including France and Poland.

Reinforcing reports from February, Chang Xiaobing chairman of China Unicom has confirmed that Apple and the company are in talks about bringing the iPhone 3G to China.

The report which comes from Reuters states that China Unicom is “talks with many handset suppliers, including Apple”.

UK iPhone carrier O2 has announced that it has sold over one million iPhones while at the same time reported a 10% rise in revenues.

O2 which is owned by Spanish firm Telefónica gained 390,000 new mobile phone customers in the last quarter of 2008 strengthening its position as the UK’s largest mobile phone carrier.

O2 began selling the iPhone in November 2007 and has now sold over a million iPhones with no signs of sales slowing.

“iPhone sales are continuing to accelerate,” said Matthew Key, chairman and chief executive of Telefónica Europe. “And we have been pretty stunned at the results of our pre-pay offer, which is £342.33 for a year’s data usage included.”

In what is being considered an effort to clear inventory, Japanese iPhone carrier Softbank Mobile has begun a new promotion entitled “iPhone for Everybody Campaign” in which the company is offering Japanese customers a free iPhone 3G with a new two-year contract.

The details which can be found on Softbank’s website show that an 8GB iPhone 3G is now free with a two-year contract tied to one of three plans; basic, premium, or student. The 16GB model isn’t free but costs ¥480 per month ($4.96) a total costs of ¥11,520 ($119) yen over the two-year contract.

Despite talks between Apple and China Mobile hitting rough ground, negotiations with China’s number two carrier are reportedly going far better.

China Unicom is China’s second largest mobile provider, just lagging behind the aforementioned China mobile. China Unicom has 125 million GSM subcribers and 43 million CDMA subscribers and unlike China Mobile runs a WCDMA network (as of May 17 this year). This is a serious advantage to Apple as the current iPhone runs on WCDMA so wouldn’t require an entire new device to be manufactured.

A spokesman for China Unicom told China Business News newspaper on Wednesday that talks began between the company and Apple in October last year but the spokesman didn’t give much detail, simply saying “the company has not authorized us to provide any explanation to the media”.

Unfortunately it appears several issues lie ahead, for example in China WiFi connectivity is not allowed on mobile phones according to regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The feature will either have to be removed or disabled via software by Apple.

Also China Unicom wants Apple to include different software applications “that Chinese users are more familiar with,” but Apple appears reluctant to concede to such demands.

Those looking to pick up an 8GB iPhone in Austria can do so for €1. T-Mobile which carries the iPhone in Austria and Germany dropped the price of the 8GB handset on Monday from €99 to just €1 (on a €45/month contract).

In addition to the massive saving on the handset, T-Mobile is offering the first month free, a saving of €45 and is offering another €45 for orders made online.

In light of the carrier looking desperate to shift units some sites have reminded us that in February 2008 Apple released the new 16GB iPhone.

On Wednesday the French Competition Council ruled [PDF] that Apple and French telecoms company Orange must immediately cease its exclusive relationship.

The order comes as a result of a complaint filed by France’s third largest mobile operator Bouygues Telecom on September 18 of this year. The complaint argued that the deal between Apple and Orange violated local freedom of competition and pricing laws.

The ruling is reportedly only temporary while the competition council looks into the complaints. In addition Apple and Orange enter into any other exclusive agreements for future iPhone models during the temporary period.

The French Competition Council stated that Apple and Orange’s exclusive relationship posed a serious threat to competition and causes consumers to incur hefty and unjust fees should they attempt to switch providers.

According to Macworld Sweden Apple has given the go ahead for Telia the regional carrier for the iPhone to develop its own MMS application in the country.

The iPhone ships with the ability to send and receive SMS only which has caused some people to become aggravated that even very basic phones on the market can send and receive MMS messages but the iPhone can’t.

MMS messages allow for the transfer of images, audio, video and rich text.

In the report it is said that Telia will be pushing the MMS application to users in Sweden in the next couple of months, there is no word whether other carriers will also be creating similar applications.

[Update] It has been revealed that Mobispine is the provider of the MMS solution for Telia in Sweden. The company has released a press release about its MMS application for the iPhone (PDF).

Mobispine AB (MOBS) the market leader in delivering
mobile solutions to operators announced the availability of the world’s first true Multimedia
Messaging (MMS) for iPhone. Mobispine is now offering a “white label” MMS service for iPhone
to global operators. This new and innovative service will increase revenue per user (ARPU) and
generate profits for operators.

Yesterday a job listing appeared on Apple’s recruitment pages which makes no effort to hide the end result of the hiring. The listing is for an “iPhone Quality Assurance Engineer in Beijing”, in the description the listing read that Apple is looking “to focus on international releases of our iPhone and iPod touch products for Beijing”.

Steve Jobs had said in the past that he wished the iPhone to be in China and Russia by the end of 2008, the latter he has already achieved.

[Update] As of writing the job listing has been removed.