BEIJING - China's major telecommunication operator China Unicom on Friday began taking pre-orders for Apple's iPhone 4 in China.
Users have to pay 5,880 yuan ($875) for the 16GB version of the iPhone 4 and 6,999 yuan ($1,042) for the 32GB version to get the iPhone 4 and two-year service package services with China Unicom, according to a statement posted on China Unicom's website.
The statement did not give any details about how long customers will have to wait to get their pre-ordered iPhone 4.Huang Wenge, a telecommunication industry analyst at Essence Securities, said iPhone 4 sales will markedly increase the number of China's Unicom's 3G service users.
"China Unicom is expected to have 1.5 million new 3G service users in October, boosted by the iPhone 4 sales," Huang said, as compared with the current average monthly growth of 500,000.
Other analysts, however, remained doubtful whether the iPhone 4 would greatly increase demand for China Unicom's 3G services.
"Most iPhone 4 users are expected to be previous iPhone series users, not new customers," said Wang Liusheng, an analyst at Analysys International.
"I don't think the iPhone 4 products can contribute a lot to the average revenue per user for China Unicom in the second half," he said.
The share price of China Unicom rose 1.87 percent to HK$12 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange but fell 0.6 percent to 4.99 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange during the morning session Friday.
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