China Unicom To Introduce iPhone With Wi-Fi In China

If you bought a China Unicom iPhone in China, you’ll most likely have noticed that it doesn’t offer Wi-Fi, as it was initially disabled for the Chinese market, thanks to government regulations that favored the home-developed WAPI security standard. The rules have been relaxed since then, so Wi-Fi iPhones are now allowed, as long as they continue to include support for the WAPI standard as an added function. China Unicom’s Chief Executive, Chang Xiaobing, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that the company would consider giving some form of compensation to existing iPhone owners in the form of improved 3G tariffs, though chances are users would much rather see Wi-Fi in their phones. Word is also going around that Unicom might lower the iPhone’s asking price from 4,999-6,999 Yuan to 3,000-3,500 Yuan, and if that’s true, it’ll certainly help boost the iPhone sales in China.