China Unicom takes orders for Apple's iPhone 4 as market views divided

China's major telecommunication operator China Unicom on Friday began taking pre-orders for Apple's iPhone 4 in China.

Users have to pay 5,880 yuan (875 U.S. dollars) for the 16GB version of the iPhone 4 and 6,999 yuan (1,042 U.S. dollars) for the 32GB version to get the iPhone 4 and two-year service package services with China Unicom, according to a statement posted on China Unicom's website.

The statement did not give any details about how long customers will have to wait to get their pre-ordered iPhone 4.

Huang Wenge, a telecommunication industry analyst at Essence Securities, said iPhone 4 sales will markedly increase the number of China's Unicom's 3G service users.

"China Unicom is expected to have 1.5 million new 3G service users in October, boosted by the iPhone 4 sales," Huang said, as compared with the current average monthly growth of 500,000.

Other analysts, however, remained doubtful whether the iPhone 4 would greatly increase demand for China Unicom's 3G services.

"Most iPhone 4 users are expected to be previous iPhone series users, not new customers," said Wang Liusheng, an analyst at Analysys International.

"I don't think the iPhone 4 products can contribute a lot to the average revenue per user for China Unicom in the second half," he said.

The share price of China Unicom rose 1.87 percent to 12 HK dollars on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange but fell 0.6 percent to 4.99 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange during the morning session Friday.

Source: Xinhua