The iPhone officially went on sale yesterday from China’s Unicom.  While they lacked the same frenzied fans as the US – that was during the initial Gen 1 launch – a few lines did form leaving queued customers in the rain for up to 7 hours.  The first owner of an official iPhone in China – they’ve long been available on the gray market – is Zhi Xianzhong.

Price for the handset with a 3 year, yes 3 year contract starts at 4,999 yuan (about $732) for the 8GB 3G model or 6,999 yuan (about $1,025) for the 32GB 3GS version.  Oh, and that price doesn’t even include WiFi, which has been left out of the handsets due to government oversight.

The success of the Chinese iPhone will be relatively limited given the price which will drop, but probably never enough for the majority to afford it.

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