After months of speculations, Apple iPhone 3G S is about to make its “official” entry in the Chinese market, following China Unicom's announcement of a three-year deal with Apple to sell the watershed device in China in 4Q. Through this deal, and while Apple is set to face several issues in the coming months, the giant tech company is set to make a big splash in the Chinese market, which has become the largest handset market in the world, with 670 million+ wireless subscribers, according to the Ministry of Information Industry.

1.Two iPhone models set to be available, but no Wi-Fi allowed. China Unicom allegedly plans to offer two iPhone 3G S models at a higher price than in the U.S.: The 16GB iPhone version for $702 and the 8GB version for $351. Apparently, China Unicom paid Apple $292 per unit for both models. Of note, a two-year service contract is required for both models. Interestingly, while China has an extensive Wi-Fi network, Wi-Fi will probably be disabled on the iPhone 3G S. For the Chinese market, Apple created a special version (A1324 model) of the iPhone, which can support GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and W-CMDA. Apple has made significant concessions to get this deal done as it also agreed to drop its traditional revenue-sharing model. Chinese Unicom will apparently pay Apple based on the number of iPhones sold. On the other hand, China Unicom, which already pre-ordered 5 million iPhones, has allegedly guaranteed to sell up to 2 million iPhones a year, representing potential sales of at least ($730 Million) for Apple, according to TMT China.

2. Chinese Market presents huge revenue opportunity for Apple, driven by high-income wireless subscribers. China being home to more millionaires (364k) than the UK, according to the latest World Wealth

Source: RCR Wireless