Here is are a few relevant “iPhone in China” excepts from today’s (August 28) China Unicom Q2 earnings briefing. Transcript courtesy Seeking Alpha
China Unicom Limited (CHU) Q2 2009 Earnings Call, August 28, 2007, 9:00 am ET. Executives:
- Chang Xiaobing – Chairman and CEO
- Lu Yimin – Executive Director and President
- Zuo Xunsheng – Executive Director and Senior VP
- Tong Jilu – Executive Director and CFO.
Chang Xiaobing
Chang Xiaobing, Chairman and CEO of China Unicom Hong Kong Limited:
In second half 2009, the company will expedite the 3G network deployment and commercial trial process. The target is to have 3G commercial launch in 285 cities on September 28, 2009 …
… On the coverage, right now on the 3G base stations, the plan for this year is to deploy [823,000] number of base stations for 3G this year, for the full year.
… We’ll fully leverage all the value chain advantage to cooperate with reputable handset vendors to supply handsets on a sizeable scale. To attract well-known brands to support our WO 3G service, we will introduce customized handset. At the same time, we welcome subscribers bringing their own handsets to signing up with us …
China Unicom Chairman and CEO, Chang Xiaobing, speaks next to a screen showing the 3G iPhone, Hong Kong on Aug. 28, 2009.
… I would like to use this interim announcement opportunity to briefly talk about our progress on iPhone. China Unicom has reached an agreement with Apple and will officially launch iPhone in the fourth quarter in China. iPhone models include 3G and 3GS, the configuration of which will meet consumers needs in China and the purchase cost will be competitive.
We believe China Unicom’s high-speed mobile broadband network coupled with the differentiation that iPhone will bring about in terms of data capacity, we’ll create a whole new communication and entertainment experiences for customers in China …
Question-and-Answer Session
Analyst Question: The second question is about iPhone. What about the pricing and how we are going to sell? Whether it’s going through the direct channels or indirect channels, whether there is volume commitment to Apple and whether the agreement is exclusive?
Unidentified China Unicom Representative: About iPhone, we already singed an agreement with Apple and we will launch iPhone handset in the fourth quarter. Given that we have some IT agreement with Apple and also with the details sales and marketing strategy, the company is also still under detailed study internally. So until we finalize on those detailed study internally. So, until we finalize on those detailed plan, we’ll further disclose at that time.
Analyst question: What is the subsidy policy for the handsets?
Unidentified China Unicom Representative: Regarding the subsidy policy, because in the trial period we did not use any subsidy policies, but regarding for the iPhone we were using the international, the regular conventional way. Based on the commitment level, contact commitment from the customers and that should determine the subsidy levels. If the customer uses more, have more usage then we will have higher subsidies and whether we will use large-scale subsidies that is still under study.
[...] Unicom’s website. Nor was there any mention of exclusivity during China Unicom’s post earnings (Q2) briefing for analysts. Yet, when questioned by reporters after the briefing, China Unicom Chairman and CEO, Chang [...]