Buy iPhone at Apple Store or via Authorized Distribution Partner
Update – October 17, 2009: Apple’s China website states that beginning October 23 customers can book (reserve) their iPhone online. Then, at the “appointed time,” customers can visit the Sanlitun Apple Store where they “will get professional advice, fast activation and personalization services.”
John Ford, Sanlitun Apple Store manager
My take on this … Beginning October 23 this link will allow customer to “reserve” their iPhone for pickup (purchase) and activation while at Apple’s Sanlitun Store in Beijing. Presumably the pick up date will be on October 30 or soon thereafter. This “buy at the Apple Store” reservations program should not be confused with the wider “reserve your iPhone” campaign conducted by China Unicom that has been in full swing for about 4 weeks now (see here). The China Unicom states that this “wider” reservations to buy the iPhone program will end on October 25.
Qianmen Street Apple Store (under construction)
China Unicom and Apple will work with many other iPhone distribution partners in China. This is essential, as Apple presently has only one official Apple Store in China (at Sanlitun Village). The new Qianmen Street (see photos) Apple Store should be opening soon and there are also plans “on the drawing board” to open an Apple Store in Hong Kong. I suspect Ron Johnson and team have their eye on several other prospective Apple Store locations in China. Shanghai and Xi’an would be at the top of my list. Down the road I might look to add another site in Beijing (18+ million residents can support multiple stores), perhaps in China’s Silicon Valley (Zhongguancun in Beijing’s Haidian District).
Here is iPhonAsia’s list of potential iPhone distribution partners (just my guess – many still unconfirmed):
China Unicom’s Vsens and major retailers Carrefour (139 stores in China), Dixintong a.k.a. D-Phone (largest handset chain-store in China – Rumors of an iPhone distribution deal with Dixintong go back to Dec 2007), Gome (610 stores – controlled by Huang Guangyu, China’s richest man) and Suning. There were also unconfirmed reports that Best Buy China and Wal-Mart China (158 stores in China) might sell iPhones. Cybermart was also in the mix, but that report was denied by Foxconn (Cybermart’s parent). Last but not least … Apple Stores in Beijing – Sanlitun and soon at Qianmen.
Apple’s China Store Website
Apple’s China Store website (http://www.apple.com.cn/iphone/) has a few new updates. It now appears to be more fully (but not entirely) “localized” in Mandarin with many new China focused photos. The web apps section, however, still needs further localization. I suspect there will be a few surprises saved for launch day.
Here (below) are a few new images from Apple’s China Store site. iPhone will synch to iTunes (requires Tunes 8.2 or later).
iPhone supports two kinds of Chinese pinyin handwriting input
Thanks to reader Steve McIntosh for the heads up re the Oct 23 Beijing Apple Store reservations campaign.
