Edible Apple

After months of speculation, it appears that the iPhone will finally be coming to China in September, with China Unicom having purchased 5 million iPhones from Apple according to a report in the International Business Times.  And as opposed to every other rumor about the iPhone in China, this report is actually corroborated by an official China Unicom employee.

China Unicom had already paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million WCDMA standard iPhones with unit price of 2,000 yuan ($293), CBN news said, citing a well-informed source.

Details of launching the iPhone have been finalized and the first batch of iPhone will appear in China Unicom 3G stalls at Carrefour and some large retail outlets run by China Unicom in September, said Zhou Youmeng, vice general manager of China Unicom.

“The price of the 8G standard iPhone is set at about 2,400 yuan and the 16G may be sold at 4,800 yuan,” said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom in Guangzhou.

So there you have it from the horses mouth.  And with hundreds of millions of phone subscribers on China Unicom, Apple’s iPhone profits may very well see a significant boost upwards in the next few months.