Catshanghai

The new Iphone is out, although it is not yet on sale in China. David Feng of Techblog86 has been anticipating the imminent official release of the Iphone in China, although Dan Washburn of Shanghaiist has been assured by local vendors that the new Iphone will soon be selling on the local grey market once the Hong Kong sourced handsets can be unlocked to work with local sim cards. This is an obvious development given what happened with Iphone version 1.

I left this comment on Dan Washburn’s post:

The new Iphone 3G is not much of a hardware upgrade apart from 3G and GPS.
The biggest change is the availability of downloadable apps from the Itunes store. This is available to Iphone 1 users who upgrade to Itunes 7.7 and Iphone 2.0 firmware.

There are some really promising apps such as Evernote and Modium, but there is no VOIP app at the Itunes store. You will need to jailbreak
It will be a little while before people like DVD Jon find a way to jailbreak the new Iphone firmware so it can be run freely in China, and the unofficial apps like Fring (for VOIP) can be run on the same handset as the Itunes apps.

It is also worth noting that 75 percent of downloadable Itunes apps have to be paid for. Given that a quarter of Iphone users are running jailbroken handsets in China, Apple is going to have find a way to bring the Middle Kingdom back into the fold. Otherwise, all those Chinese Iphone users are not going to be able to download official apps even if they want to pay for them.

Another commenter tripped me up for my confusion about unlocking and jailbreaking an Iphone. I lumped them together, but this point is moot for most Iphone users in China. They buy handsets that are already unlocked and jailbroken. That has been the experience among my students and colleagues.

Those who need further help on this issue should make regular visits to this website by Lawrence of Computer Solutions.

There was also some confusion about using paid for apps in China. Even if there is a software fix that allows Chinese Iphone users to run jailbroken and offiicial apps side by side, there is still a problem that there is no Chinese Itunes store. Chinese Iphone users cannot use a locally registered credit card to purchase apps from the Itunes store.

Apple needs to quickly setup a Chinese Itunes store and launch an offiicial handset on the mainland. Otherwise you get the absurd situation that everyone in its second biggest market where the handsets are manufactured is operating in a black market. This includes senior Apple employees based in China. (I’m keeping Mum!)

Further Reading
Iphone In China
iPhone Countdown for Mainland China?
Don’t Worry The Black Market Is Working Iphone In China Still Selling Like Hotcakes
Better Than Jailbreaking Except
What’s Good And Free In The Itunes App Store