The latest rumors from China (via Marbridge Consulting) claim that there will be two (2) app stores that will officially support the iPhone:
- Apple’s China App Store
- China Unicom’s Wo App Store
This report fits with earlier rumors which claimed that Apple would retain control of its China App Store and today’s report about the new ”Wo” platform specially developed to support iPhone.
Marbridge Consulting cites a source within China Unicom who reveals that both the Unicom “Wo” App Store and the Apple App Store will co-exist on the Unicom iPhone. Marbridge Consulting also reports that “other industry sources” claim the Wo App Store is identical (a clone?) to the Apple’s China App Store, but cannot use the Apple trademark/name in China.
As iPhonAsia readers know, we have speculated on a number of occasions about possibility of Apple assisting China Unicom with the development of their “Wo” App Store and perhaps even creating a cloned version of the Apple App Store that might be rebranded for China Unicom. The Unicom/Apple technology cooperation will be important as the integration between the iPhone and “Wo” App Store must be seamless.
Perhaps two apps stores will be better than one? Stay tuned.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your comment. Sounds like China carrier app store consumers will have a “free look” period (how many days?) for their app purchases. The customer can apparently rescind their purchase if the app does not meet their expectation.
Good seeing you at the SVC wireless conference.
The official price for Unicom iPhone just came out
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/hpad/index.cfm?purl=/.site/news/Stock%20News/2547002/
The monthly is about $20. The phone will cost around $310. This is a great entry point. I expect iPhone sell extremely well…… assume the monthly is unlimited data
We just heard from China Unicom and China Mobile yesterday that all application must go through a trial run. The main reason is for “security”. I see couple of major problems for non-Chinese app developers
1 – You need to have a company in China in order to sell software. The company must be owned 51% or more by a Chinese citizen
2 – You collect money from application store in local currency, RMB. You cannot easily convert the currency to USD or Euro or any other currency
3 – You may need to pay for the trial. It will be very uncertain how that will end up
4 – If your application is part of a platform; i.e. Twitter, FB..etc, your application can be removed even you passed the trial
I just don’t see how Apple can deal with the government policies.