China Officially Launches iPhone, Charging Higher Price and Without Wi-Fi

Finally, after 2 years, the iPhone officially launches in China.  However, the launch is relatively tame compared to the huge buzz and towering lines accompanied with US and other Asian iPhone launches.  The high price and the lack of Wi-Fi at launch are keeping iPhone buyers from getting that offical Chinese iPhone.

The launch event set in Bejing was a rainy day with cold temperature, but it did draw a crowd. There were a few hundred or so folks getting in line at the China Unicom event waiting to buy an iPhone.  When asked, they responded that the high price and lacked of Wi-Fi won’t keep them from buying an official iPhone from Apple.

However, that is not how everyone feels about the official Chinese iPhone.  At the Apple store in Beijing, crowds gathered.  But most of the folks there aren’t looking to buy the iPhone.  They are just there to check out the launch event.  “I already have one,” said a customer in the Apple Store, holding up a black iPhone he purchased in Australia. He is using the phone with China Unicom’s 3G service already. “There’s no reason to be charging these prices whether it doesn’t have Wi-Fi,” he said.  That is the response of many iPhone enthusiasts in China.  The China iPhone

costs around 4,999 yuan ($730), and 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the high-end, 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS. That is 20 percent above the 5,700 yuan ($835) charged by merchants at Chinese street markets for an imported 3GS with WiFi.

Apple removed Wi-Fi in order to meet with China government’s regulatory standard.  China banned Wi-Fi in smart phones earlier that year to support China’s homegrown WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) standard into their handsets.  That regulatory requirement has since been removed.  However, Apple’s no-Wi-Fi iPhones were already in the manufacturing process when the Wi-Fi ban had been lifted.  Thus, the iPhones at launch are dumbbed down.  It will assemble potential iPhone buyers feel that their iPhone is inferior to the ones that are sold to Americans and other countries.

The lack of Wi-Fi, along with higher price compared to other countries may spell a catastrophe for Chinese iPhone sales.  Fortunately, Apple is going to ship Wi-Fi enabled iPhones in the following batch of iPhones .  But is it making a mistake for selling Wi-Fi cripple iPhones at launch.  It is a public relation nightmare for Apple’s image in China.   A successful launch event should generate buzz and applauds in the media.  But criticisms for the extravagant price and lack of Wi-Fi fill the media.  Perhaps, Apple should have returned the cripple iPhone to manufacturing plant and re-enable Wi-Fi before launching a PR catastrophe.