Hasta La Gadget!

Is it really happening? Is the world’s most thickly settled nation finally getting the iPhone in earnest? If a bold (albeit woolly) report from China’s own national news agency is to be believed, China Unicom has just locked down a deal that’ll grant it exclusive rights to sell Apple’s heralded smartphone in mainland China for three whole years. Unfortunately, most of the nitty-gritty details are absent, but we are led to believe that this will be the first-ever iPhone sold with any branding at all outside of logos splashed on at Cupertino. The “Wo” icon you see just below the speaker signifies that this here device is ready to rock on the carrier’s 3G network, though we still can’t say with any amount of certainty if said image is fully legitimate. We’re also waiting to hear whether it’ll be the iPhone 3G or 3GS (or both) that’s sold, and we’re particular curious as to whether or not these handsets will include WiFi modules.

In related news, it does sound as if China Unicom bent over backwards a bit to make this all come together, with the article stating that it signed on to move between one and two million units per year regardless of how many consumers actually show up to buy one. If you’ll recall, an eerily similar agreement has Russian operators in a world of financial hurt, but we get the feeling the reception in China will be quite a bit warmer. At any rate, it’s noted that Unicom will be snapping up the devices from Apple at a cost of around 3,000 Chinese yuan apiece ($439), with end users being asked to pay an undisclosed lesser amount on contract. If all goes well, the units could hit Chinese shops as early as September, though only time will tell how everything shakes out. Oh, and considering that Apple can hardly keep up with iPhone 3GS demand as it is, we suspect it’ll want to wait a few months anyway before stressing its supply channels further.

Update: A China Unicom spokeswoman has now been quoted as saying that “we have made progress but there are still some problems to be resolved.” Really? Another round of this?

Filed under: Cellphones

China Unicom finally bringing iPhone to world’s most populous country? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a second run in with low, low, low prices on particular products at Dell Taiwan, Dell has shut down that country’s online store until it can sort things out. Apparently this time it was the Latitude E4300 which would go haywire with particular CPU configurations. Dell is offering a 20,000 NT (about $600 US) discount to those who ordered the mis-priced PC, but apparently that only just matches the regular street price in Taiwan for the computer so people are naturally up in arms. We’re not sure what they’re so grumpy about: sounds like a paradise on earth to us.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Taiwan gets sidelined after second ‘bargain’ incident originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a little silly just how hush-hush this whole iPhone-AT&T exclusivity agreement has been, but now it sounds like it just might be next century before any of you CDMA loyalists are able to indulge in the App Store. According to a fresh report in The Wall Street Journal, people “familiar with the matter” have suggested that AT&T is feverishly working to extend its exclusive agreement to carry the iPhone in America until 2011. Last we heard, the deal was stretched out through 2010, and considering just how many new subscribers are flocking over solely for this phone, can you really blame the guy for wanting another dozen months of bliss? Not surprisingly, an Apple spokeswoman had more to say about her personal life than on these rumors, but if you were really banking on snapping up a Verizon-branded iPhone at the end of next year, you should probably ask someone to blast you with a giant fire hose of reality.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Cellphones

AT&T purportedly looking to push iPhone exclusivity to 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s ultrathin X360 didn’t quite get the love of some of its competition out of the gate, and has already been preempted by the X460, but the X360 has always had a lovable price tag on its side. Not like this, though. The originally $1900-ish laptop is now going for $750 after rebate on Amazon.com, and that includes 3GB of RAM and Vista Biz to boot. Sure, the 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo SU9300 and Intel integrated graphics never did anyone any favors, but at least this should shut up your non-productive Atom-powered bowling buddies. Or you could wait a month for every other ultraportable on earth to best this pricetag and netbook specs to catch up.

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung X360 ultraportable dips below $800 mark originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seemed nearly imminent that Fujitsu would be selling off its hard disk division to rival Western Digital, but apparently something has gone awry. According to Fujitsu President Kuniaki Nozoe, there is currently “zero chance” of a deal being done, though he did confess that the two had sat down and contemplated changing their statuses to “it’s complicated.” Unfortunately, that’s about all we have to go on for the moment, especially when you consider that WD’s take on the whole ordeal is a concise “no comment.” Who knows, maybe this is just cold feet or something, or maybe Fujitsu simply realized that it was better off saving itself for the one.

[Via NotebookReview]

Filed under: Storage

Fujitsu puts the kibosh on possible sale to Western Digital originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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