Special Chinese Wifi-less iPhones rolling off the assembly line in China

Every time we think AT&T are the biggest douchebags on the planet, we get a reminder that someone, somewhere is worse off.  Trading Markets is reporting that iPhones designed to stay in the country are now rolling off the assembly line in Shenzen, China.  They’ve been neutered of their ability to use Wifi.

Two production lines in the Foxconn Shenzhen plant are producing 90-coded mobile phones, device that looks like iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, said one source. The mysterious products might be the very model designed for Chinese users, according to another source, noting that the massively-produced device has no Wi-Fi functions, just like the A1324 model, the Chinese version of 3G iPhone being sent to the China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) for a test.

This sort of correlates to an earlier Commercial Times report saying that special iPhones for China were being manufactured.

iPhones sold in Egypt and a few other Middle Eastern nations have their GPS disabled by software only.  Locals are able to circumvent the GPS unlock by jailbreaking.  By physically removing the Wifi, China is insuring that iPhones won’t be able to use Wifi via a hack, nor will their users be able to fully enjoy all the powers of the iPhone.