China to get real iPhone 4 and iPad

Although gray market Apple iPhones and iPad are already bring sold in China -- right next to the iPhone and iPad clones -- their legitimate counterparts might be on their way.

Reports are coming in that China Unicom, one of China’s largest mobile carriers, is in talks with Apple to offer both the iPhone 4 and iPad in China as early as September. Apple has not confirmed either deal.

With the Shanghai Apple store opening in mid July, the iPhone 4 and iPad will be conspicuously missing although its questionable how popular the iPhone 4 will be in here since the market is already flooded with iPhone 4 clones as well as the grey market models. Additionally, the sales of the iPhone 3G here were hampered by government regulations, limiting the phone’s WiFi capabilities. No one is sure if this same restriction would apply to the iPhone 4.

According to the Wall Street journal, China Unicom “said about six weeks after it launched the iPhone last year that it had sold 100,000 units. By comparison, Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the 30 hours after its first model went on sale in the United States in 2007.” The iPad faces the same issues that iPhone 4 does in China with additional competition in a market already saturated with other tablet computers.

Marvin Lo, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets tells the Wall Street Journal, “iPad will face tougher competition than iPhone, because it’s not that elite compared to the other tablet computers that could launch in China soon."