Reuters is reporting that Apple has now received one of the two licences needed to allow it to sell the iPhone 6 in China. There is no word yet on the second licence required before the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be launched in this hugely important market.
Apple Inc’s iPhone 6 received regulatory approval for use on domestic frequencies but still requires one more critical licence before it may be sold in the country, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday […]
Apple still needs to obtain a critical network access licence for the iPhone, after which sales may begin, Xinhua said …
The iPhone 6 may not actually exist yet, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese clone manufacturers releasing functional knock-offs based on the leaks and mockups. Now Goophone – the company which previously made an extremely close copy of the iPhone 5s – has joined the party with the WICO i6.
As ever with Goophone, the quality of both the casing and the iOS-themed Android skin is certainly good enough to fool the casual observer – almost worth getting one to prank people …
As for the real thing, production of the 4.7-inch model is expected to start next week, and the 5.5-inch version the second week in August, Foxconn hiring 100,000 new workers for the assembly process.
TechInAsia reports that Chinese buyers are buying from China Unicom rather than Apple as the carrier offers both iPhone 5c and 5s with no up-front cost.
The catch? Monthly costs higher than in the USA, and contracts that run for either 30 or 36 months. Those monthly costs are massive in a country where the average monthly salary is around $800, and a 36-month contract means that buying an iPhone 5c or 5s today will see you sitting out the iPhone 6 and 6s/c/whoknowswhat.
It’s estimated that China already had 42M iPhone users before the launch of the new phones, and before they were officially supported by any of the local carriers.
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty issued a note to clients today claiming she is even more confident Apple will introduce a low-cost iPhone following a meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard an analyst discuss the much-rumored low-cost iPhone. Since its release, the success of the lower-priced iPad mini has been the rationale behind many analysts prediction of a less expensive iPhone expected to launch sometime later this year. We’re not so sure Oppenheimer let anything slip that we wouldn’t have otherwise heard at the most recent earnings call, but Huberty wrote she is even more confident that the device is in the works following the meeting with the Apple executive (via BusinessInsider). Her reasoning: success of the iPad mini in emerging markets, desire among Chinese consumers to purchase a new, low-cost device, and the continued success of iPhone 4 during last quarter:
We also see several signs that a lower priced iPhone makes sense: 1) iPad Mini is expanding Apple’s customer base with 50% of purchases in China/Brazil representing new customers to the ecosystem. 2) Chinese consumers show a desire to purchase the latest version of iPhone (instead of discounted older generations). 3) iPhone 4 demand surprised to the upside in the December quarter. Even at a low 40% gross margin and 1/3 cannibalization rate, we see an “iPhone Mini” as incremental to revenue and gross profit dollars.
Update: These are likely an iPhone 5 clone (with better vibrating motor). Note the smaller 1150 mAh battery and the (d’oh) SD card slot.
The images above allegedly show a Foxconn assembly line in addition to some up close spy shots of what could be Apple’s next generation iPhone 5S. The images were originally posted by Chinese CNET/CBSi-owned tech site sjbbs.zol.com and later reposted by GizChina. We see a front panel largely resembling the currently shipping iPhone 5 in the images and some rather nice shots of the devices’ components, providing clues that this is indeed the next-gen iPhone and not the iPhone 5.
As noted by German language website PCgameshardware.de, the iPhone shown in the images above appears to have a vibrating motor that differs from the iPhone 5. Apple used a linear oscillating vibrator with the iPhone 4S, as pictured in this teardown image. iFixit noted the change was a “head-scratcher”:
Unlike the iPhone 4S, which used a linear-oscillating vibrator, Apple has gone back to a rotational motor with a counterweight.We praised Apple in the past for going with the quieter and less annoying linear oscillating vibrator, but now we’re scratching our heads as to why they went back.
While it wasn’t exactly clear as to why, Apple switched back to the sometimes louder, rotational motor that utilizes a counterweight for the iPhone 5. The alleged images of the iPhone 5S show that Apple appears to be going to a linear vibrating motor design (which also makes these spy shots a bit more believable than otherwise).
iPhone 5 (iFixit)
These images
iPhone 4S
The post also provides a rare shot of workers relaxing on Foxconn’s assembly line: Expand Expanding Close
Siri is many things, but it seems she is not a good secret keeper. A few tipsters reached out and told us that Siri now speaks Japanese. Rumors earlier this month said Apple’s AI speech recognition interface would gain Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and possibly Russian. It now appears that Japanese is about to be announced, perhaps at the iPad 3 announcement next month. There is no word yet on Chinese or Russian, but those are also likely coming soon.
When Siri was announced in October, Apple said that that additional languages would follow this year. Apple’s Siri FAQ says that she will support Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish in 2012:
Language Support and Availability
Siri works exclusively on iPhone 4S. Siri understands and can speak the following languages:
English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia)
French (France)
German (Germany)
In 2012, Siri will support additional languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish.
Can I use Siri in any of these languages in other countries?
Yes. Siri can be enabled in any country, and you can choose to speak to it in English, French, or German. However, Siri is designed to recognize the specific accents and dialects of the supported countries listed above. Since every language has its own accents and dialects, the accuracy rate will be higher for native speakers.
MICGadgetreports that some industrious Chinese smugglers devised an elaborate system to get iPads and iPhones across the border into the country where they were once built:
Hong Kong and Chinese customs have cracked an audacious smuggling operation that saw Apple goods ferried along a long cable straddling the border. The iPad and iPhones were transported over a small river that separates the booming city of Shenzhen from the rural northern part of Hong Kong using an elaborate pulley system. The cable was shot across the border using a crossbow [Batman?] and the Apple products were flying across at night, which store in black nylon bags. The cable was suspended to a high-rise building in the Chinese border town of Shenzhen, and goods were moved several hundred meters from a small village house located in Hong Kong
6 smugglers were arrested in the operation, 50’s iPad 2 and 50’s iPhone 4, which worth about three hundred thousand yuan (US$46,583) were seized.
It is startling that Chinese taxes make operations like this necessary, especially in the place where these things are actually produced! Expand Expanding Close
Without revealing too many new details, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and China Mobile are “getting closer” to the seemingly elusive China Mobile iPhone deal. China Mobile is the mainland’s largest carrier with over 600 million subscribers (that’s about the equiv. of the US+European populations). The report also confirms that it was, in fact, Tim Cook who was spotted at China Mobile‘s headquarters in mid-June.
The WSJ also discusses the price of the current iPhone models in context with the average salaries for China households:
The iPhone, which currently sells for between 3,999 and 5,999 yuan without contract, would be a luxury for many Chinese consumers. The average household income in the first half of 2011 was 12,076 yuan, according to China’s national statistics bureau.
With this fact in mind, it makes sense for Apple to build and sell a more economical iPhone. The report is not specific about when this China Mobile iPhone will launch and China Mobile has already confirmed that talks with Apple over carrying the iPhone are ongoing. Be sure to check out the WSJ’s explanation of the “exclusive” in the video above.
That lovely Steve Jobs action figure you see up there went on auction for $2500 recently. Only 100-300 were sold through MIC Gadget before the operation was shut down by Apple, making the items a rare find for collectors. More have cropped up on eBay fetching prices from $1000.. to.. $2500.
