Mel, I've been to China many times. There are ways around everything.
That's a very generalized statement. If one is a computer geek in China, they might be able to find a way around, but with the government using computerized monitoring to catch requests, sooner or later, even that geek will be found out.
For everyone else, it's just not possible.
And with anyone going for information that's been banned considered to be a danger to the state, they are in a situation where they could be arrested.
i spend lot of time staying in china every year and things is not as worse as everyone describing above. yes there are quite a number of sites banned in china but they are mostly chinese sites from hong kong and taiwan which contains political sensitive information. wiki is banned too, but im able to access cnn, bbc and facebook in china all the time.
however im not sure why wifi is also banned for iphone in order to release in china. apple is selling thier ipod touch everywhere without any restriction. starbucks in china also providing free wifi and you can see every starbucks is always full of people sitting with their wifi laptop and of course also many ipod touches. therefore i believe the source is a bit not correct.
As per the GSM World coverage map for China only Hong Kong carriers such as 3 have 3G (HSPA) coverage where as on the mainland of China "China Mobile" only supports EDGE. Though I see no reason for Apple to intentionally cripple their product just to sell on the mainland since many citizens travel back and forth to Hong Kong daily for business and pleasure. I believe China Mobile's department heads have a misunderstanding of GSM and HSPA technology. The 3G chipset in the iPhone 3G is backwards compatible with EDGE when the device is out of HSPA coverage so there's no need to disable it. While on the EDGE network the iPhone will behave as the original model slower with data transmissions and inability to stream both voice and data at the same time. Though when in a HSPA coverage zone such as in Hong Kong the device can use HSPA thus stream both voice and data at the same time. As for disabling WIFI a user can do this from the device but the only reason I can see China Mobile wanting Apple to intentionally cripple this feature is to force their customers use data on their network and not use WIFI Hotspots in their city or use WIFI when at home on their personal WLAN. A reminder to China Mobile that people living in China can easily get an unlocked iPhone 3G in Hong Kong thus circumventing China Mobile's pressure tactics. Note: to those planning a trip to Hong Kong the HSPA coverage on 3 network is great. Reference: http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_cn.shtml and http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_hk.shtml
You are right... Apple did release an unlocked iPhone. The price is a little too much. I think that $400 for the 8G and $500 for the 16G would allow for an explosive growth. Merchants would find a way to distribute the phones all over Mainland China. Not much China Mobile or any other carrier could do to stop it.
At a reasonable price, even I would like to have one here in the US. If I am traveling, I can always buy a cheap prepaid SIM, instead of getting ripped-off by ATT for foreign roaming charges.
Even at these prices, APPL could sell 10+M phones to China in the next 12 months.
don't be such retard! where did it say in the article that WIFI is banned in china?
china mobile, as a company, simply asks apple to support their legitimate business concerns in lieu of competitive cell phone market in china. of course apple could choose to use another cell phone carrier, but china mobile is the biggest.
Apple should in no way compromise it's iPhone to grease the wheels of insanity.Make 'em grow up!
Maybe the key to this for Apple will be offering an app that allows wifi internet browsing but kills skype calls etc.
china mobile does not depend on apple, instead, apple might have to eat up its craps and suck up to china mobile's demand to fulfill its 10m iphone sale target.
This is exactly right - and on top of it Apple has been selling the iTouch in China ever since it came out, so there is no real reason for them to ask for the WiFi to be disabled. Plenty of phones have internet access in China - all those high end phones that are priced up there. I take it that this is mostly because Chinese top dogs have no ability to think outside any box.
And, you can add to the list of websites that don't work: Wikipedia and periodically BBC, CNN, Myspace, Facebook, and Yahoo! :-) God - living in China can really be a depressing information drain sometimes.
what do you mean "don't work"? is that BBC/CNN/Myspace/Facebook/Yahoo chinese sites "don't work" or english sites "don't work"? last time i checked that majority of chinese still don't understand shits about english and amazingly all english sites worked. so if 100% of sites you quoted do not work, why bother?
...Tell China that sharing revenue has it's benefits...
To be totally fair, Apple appears to have decided to take revenue sharing deals off the table everywhere. Instead, they've opted for the more industry-standard tactic of charging more for the wholesale price of the phone, and permitting carriers to subsidize the equipment to keep the customer's perceived up-front purchase price low.
And, you can add to the list of websites that don't work: Wikipedia and periodically BBC, CNN, Myspace, Facebook, and Yahoo! :-) God - living in China can really be a depressing information drain sometimes.
Actually every single one of those sites AND google maps.. as mentioned before work perfectly fine in China. and no I am not at all Chinese but I am a foreigner living in China.
Comments
No, there aren't.
Even if there were, it's illegal there, and only a very few would be able to do it anyway.
The government there doesn't slap you on the wrist for doing what you're not supposed to do. They chain the wrist to the prison wall.
Mel, I've been to China many times. There are ways around everything.
Mel, I've been to China many times. There are ways around everything.
That's a very generalized statement. If one is a computer geek in China, they might be able to find a way around, but with the government using computerized monitoring to catch requests, sooner or later, even that geek will be found out.
For everyone else, it's just not possible.
And with anyone going for information that's been banned considered to be a danger to the state, they are in a situation where they could be arrested.
Not so simple.
however im not sure why wifi is also banned for iphone in order to release in china. apple is selling thier ipod touch everywhere without any restriction. starbucks in china also providing free wifi and you can see every starbucks is always full of people sitting with their wifi laptop and of course also many ipod touches. therefore i believe the source is a bit not correct.
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2008/...ills-treo-680/
No WiFi, no 3G, problem solved!!!
At a reasonable price, even I would like to have one here in the US. If I am traveling, I can always buy a cheap prepaid SIM, instead of getting ripped-off by ATT for foreign roaming charges.
Even at these prices, APPL could sell 10+M phones to China in the next 12 months.
Why is WIFI banned in China?
don't be such retard! where did it say in the article that WIFI is banned in china?
china mobile, as a company, simply asks apple to support their legitimate business concerns in lieu of competitive cell phone market in china. of course apple could choose to use another cell phone carrier, but china mobile is the biggest.
Apple should in no way compromise it's iPhone to grease the wheels of insanity.Make 'em grow up!
Maybe the key to this for Apple will be offering an app that allows wifi internet browsing but kills skype calls etc.
china mobile does not depend on apple, instead, apple might have to eat up its craps and suck up to china mobile's demand to fulfill its 10m iphone sale target.
This is exactly right - and on top of it Apple has been selling the iTouch in China ever since it came out, so there is no real reason for them to ask for the WiFi to be disabled. Plenty of phones have internet access in China - all those high end phones that are priced up there. I take it that this is mostly because Chinese top dogs have no ability to think outside any box.
And, you can add to the list of websites that don't work: Wikipedia and periodically BBC, CNN, Myspace, Facebook, and Yahoo! :-) God - living in China can really be a depressing information drain sometimes.
what do you mean "don't work"? is that BBC/CNN/Myspace/Facebook/Yahoo chinese sites "don't work" or english sites "don't work"? last time i checked that majority of chinese still don't understand shits about english and amazingly all english sites worked. so if 100% of sites you quoted do not work, why bother?
...Tell China that sharing revenue has it's benefits...
To be totally fair, Apple appears to have decided to take revenue sharing deals off the table everywhere. Instead, they've opted for the more industry-standard tactic of charging more for the wholesale price of the phone, and permitting carriers to subsidize the equipment to keep the customer's perceived up-front purchase price low.
And, you can add to the list of websites that don't work: Wikipedia and periodically BBC, CNN, Myspace, Facebook, and Yahoo! :-) God - living in China can really be a depressing information drain sometimes.
Actually every single one of those sites AND google maps.. as mentioned before work perfectly fine in China. and no I am not at all Chinese but I am a foreigner living in China.