Wow. I thought this was a meaningful discussion about the iPhone in China. Your post sounds like a personal attack to me.
I would respond to your insult but if I do, I will be banned like I was last week for defending myself against another personal attack.
So that being the case, I will just say, yes, your right. I do stink. \
Mods, I hope I behaved correctly. And to the AI community, I hope I haven't offended any of you with my personal opinions. I know how sensitive you are.
Bless your heart. Even when I'm not here you think of me. Okay, I wouldn't want to disappoint you.
Does demand really outstrip supply or is Apple just a small potatoes company that is unable to execute? It's still 3 weeks before iPhone 4 ships in the US after all these months. And from what I read on the iTunes bug fix story, good luck getting your music to play on the "best iPod we've ever made."
Welcome to the big leagues Apple. Do you have what it takes to be a player?
The second biggest and most valuable company in the world is just a small potatoes company?
I guess...
Well. What ever makes you feel better about yourself and your opinion.
One of your more ridiculous posts. You are losing your touch... or is it that you are touched... oh well whichever.
No it's not. Apple has shown repeatedly that it is not ready to compete with other hardware and software companies. They have done very well as a niche market, but now thanks to the iPhone, they are main stream. How are they doing?
Well, let's see. Millions on antenna technology which resulted in... well, you know.
Crippled iTunes 10 that cant rip a cd or play a song.
Months to fix hobbled iPhone 3G
Proximity sensor that was fine three years ago that took months to fix on iphone 4.
Apple TV that only has deals with two content providers.
iPad that has no magazine subscription plan in place months after delivery.
Computers with cracked displays and yellow monitors
The second biggest and most valuable company in the world is just a small potatoes company?
I guess...
Well. What ever makes you feel better about yourself and your opinion.
I don't have the stats in front of me, but Apple is certainly a smaller company than Microsoft, a rival software developer. I think they are not as big as Sony or Samsung, rival hardware companies.
No matter how you slice it, Apple has issues executing and instead of making excuses for them, they need to fix them. They had to call a freaking press conference to explain to the world that their iOS4 software wasn't drawing bars correctly for three years and to give free cases for...well, you know.
Now they want to sell iPhones to the bootleg capital of the planet and they run out of phones on the first day?
Anyway... this looks to be Apple's year in China. After a slow start customers are really warming up to Apple's sense of aesthetics and world-class tech. I'd love to hear more from Apple/iPhone fans in China (besides Hong Kong).
Talking about Hong Kong, iPhones have already flooded the city.
I think some investigation would be in line for this report. Given all the odd limitations the Chinese government has thrown at Apple (and other suppliers), this is not unexpected. However, the fact that Apple is willing to address those issues and continue to see China as a singular opportunity, places the US markets as a strong potential second-place market once Apple get established there. Between India and China, the US market and in particular the Verizon part of the market hardly registers. If memory serves me correctly, CDMA in either of these markets is an order of magnitude bigger than Verizon.
just type in 'Chinese iPhone knockoff' into Google ... you'll get a hefty return of stories. But if this site allows links, I'll put in just one of the stories:
...none of those articles talk about how mind-bogglingly awesome those devices are compared to the original, as you averred earlier. Perhaps you have something a little bit more in the way of supporting your commentary?
... start getting some intelligence? I had a good laugh at that one. Trust me, I have enough to banter with the likes of you.
My comment was merely to point out that it's sad China has 1.3 billion peeps, yet struggle to fill even 200,000 orders. I was pointing out 200,000 orders seem low, when the phone has just hit the market. They should have had much more orders, but didn't because there have been black market knockoffs for years. Honestly, I think you did not understand the angle I was spinning the story.
Additionally, my post was about my OPINION, so just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean I lack intelligence.
Average annual per capita disposable income of household (2005): rural households Y 3,255 (U.S.$397), urban households Y 10,493 (U.S.$1,281).
Sources of income (2003): rural households ? income from household businesses 75.7%, wages 19.1%, transfers 3.7%, other 1.5%; urban households ? wages 70.7%, transfers 23.3%, business income 4.5%, other 1.5%.
Expenditure: rural (urban) households ? food 45.6% (37.1%), housing 15.9% (10.7%), education and recreation 12.1% (14.4%), transportation and communications 8.4% (11.1%), clothing 5.7% (9.8%), medicine and medical service 6.0% (7.1%), household furnishings 4.2% (6.3%).
Employment
Population economically active (2003): total 760,800,000.
Activity rate of total population 58.9% (participation rates: over age 15 [2001] 77.7%; female [2001] 37.8%; registered unemployed in urban areas [December 2004] 4.2%).
Urban employed workforce (2001): 239,400,000; by sector: state enterprises 76,400,000, collectives 28,130,000, self-employment or privately run enterprises 134,870,000.
Here in Canada unless you're a kid that doesn't have any financial responsibilities you can't afford to camp out a day in advance in front of an Apple store or Rogers dealer location with the hope that maybe you'll get your hands on an iPhone 4. I've spent several months calling dealers and Apple as well as gas and parking fees driving around the city trying to buy two iPhone 4 16 GB to give as gifts to my parents.Everywhere I get the same response "Suggest you line up outside the store early as possible as most people line up at 2 AM".
Most of the SMART shoppers will do what my daughter did. Go to the local dealer (Simply Computing, in our case) leave a deposit and they will notify you when your phone comes in .... or, you can do what you prefer .... go on an internet site and whine and bitch .... really!
Removed Blackintosh post from my reply. Added to ignore list.
I forgot most competing products are superior to Apple's and that is why Apple is doing so poorly.
Apple's customer satisfaction ratings, profits, sales etc. etc... are all up, contrary to the economy and the wast majority of their competition. Your opinion is contrary to the vast majority, but then again trolls specialize in that, so nothing has changed. Please don't reply by playing the Android versus iOS card unless your willing to compare each manufacturer on a 1 to 1 basis with Apple, not all of them combined versus Apple.
My comment was merely to point out that it's sad China has 1.3 billion peeps, yet struggle to fill even 200,000 orders. I was pointing out 200,000 orders seem low, when the phone has just hit the market. They should have had much more orders, but didn't because there have been black market knockoffs for years.
I don't think a device that looks vaguely similar to the iPhone, not running iOS or matching the hardware of the iPhone 4, is going to hurt Apple much in China. People who go out and buy something so inferior just because it looks like an iPhone were not going to be Apple customers anyway. They are black/grey market customers. This is a reality for any company that wants to sell a premium product in China.
It's kind of like the piracy argument of lost sales -- not everyone who downloads your movie would have bought it so counting it as lost sales is misleading. Your example pushes it to even a further extreme because it would be akin to buying a bootleg copy of a movie, getting it home, and when you watch it's just some guys in their garage poorly acting out the movie. Counterfeiting only becomes a major problem for higher cost items when the black/grey market equivalent is of very good quality. Otherwise it's just a waste of money.
I won't even bother going into the fact that the actual market for the iPhone in China isn't equal to the population of the country due to income disparity. It's like saying the market for a $90,000 sports car in the US is 300 million potential customers. It is not.
Most of the SMART shoppers will do what my daughter did. Go to the local dealer (Simply Computing, in our case) leave a deposit and they will notify you when your phone comes in .... or, you can do what you prefer .... go on an internet site and whine and bitch .... really!
Bad idea because then he would have nothing to complain about. That would ruin his day and then what would he do with all the extra time that he didn't get to waste?
All, A thread about the iPhone 4 is not the place to bitch and moan about an alleged troll. I have therefore deleted several posts from this thread.
Not everyone thinks the sun shines out of Apple's/SJ's bottom. Deal with it. If someone does post something that's factually incorrect, you should respond thus:
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Plus all his stupid aliases
Blackintosh doesn't have any aliases here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackintosh
I don't have the stats in front of me, but Apple is certainly a smaller company than Microsoft, a rival software developer. I think they are not as big as Sony or Samsung, rival hardware companies.
How are you measuring size here? Revenues? Employees? If it's by market valuation, you appear not to appreciate that given Apple is the second biggest company in the world, it is impossible for them to be smaller than 3 other companies. The one company they are smaller than is Exxon-Mobil. Having said that, they did only just pass a Chinese company (forget the name) to take their second place, so could easily drop back down to 3rd as markets fluctuate.
No it's not. Apple has shown repeatedly that it is not ready to compete with other hardware and software companies. They have done very well as a niche market, but now thanks to the iPhone, they are main stream. How are they doing?
Well, let's see. Millions on antenna technology which resulted in... well, you know.
Crippled iTunes 10 that cant rip a cd or play a song.
Months to fix hobbled iPhone 3G
Proximity sensor that was fine three years ago that took months to fix on iphone 4.
Apple TV that only has deals with two content providers.
iPad that has no magazine subscription plan in place months after delivery.
Computers with cracked displays and yellow monitors
Need more?
Hmm... It's a better antenna, just a trade-off of touching the "spot". It's a niggle for me. But I can't go back to a 3GS. Not after iPhone 4.
iTunes 10 seems to play my songs, haven't tried ripping a CD.
Yeah, it took a while for the iPhone 3G, but's it's passable now.
Proximity, well, it's fixed. Just in time for when I got my iPhone 4 last Friday.
AppleTV's content providers ~ well, it's the studios that are losing out.
iPad ~ hmm... I wonder what Zinio is or other magazine apps.
Apparently manufacturing is 110% absolutely perfect?
Apple is not perfect, but whether or not it is niche or competes or is mainstream or whatever, the world demands the "flawed" iPhone4 and "crippled" iPad. Most important is that we stay realistic, continue to give feedback and suggestions, they'll listen in the end.
And, for things that Apple can't provide enough of, hopefully many other companies will step up to the plate. Diversity is good.
We are pleased to inform you that one or more of your items has shipped. Please see the details of the shipment below. If you ordered more than one item, they may ship separately.
Okay, I normally read articles here, but rarely have felt the need to comment. Yes, I created an account just to chime in on this particular thread. I'm not going to get into the whole Apple good or bad.. just going to talk about my actual use of the iPhone 4 IN China.
I got my iPhone4 on launch day (actually 1 day before, thanks to FedEx) in the USA and fortunately for me haven't been plagued consistently with any sort of signal attenuation/death grip drama, yellow or green tint issues or even proximity sensor problems. One advantage of an early model is the fact that you get to take advantage of any early exploits and so I "dev-team unlocked" my iPhone, so I could use my new phone while overseas. I got sent to Taipei then Beijing then Shanghai, over the last two months of August and September 2010, and have first hand experience with using the iPhone 4, all before its official launches in Taiwan and China.
My experience in China was actually quite amazing, despite my assumption that service in China would be worse. I went with China Unicom, as China Mobile isn't GSM/frequency compatible with the iPhone 4. I got one of their pre-paid 2GB/month data plans with minimal minutes, as phone calls weren't an issue, but on-demand data was critical to both work and personal life. I had to cut their SIM down, as they didn't have micro SIMs at the time. I'm sure this has changed with an official launch of the iPad and iPhone 4. Everywhere I went... and I mean in core Beijing and even to the countryside to touristy spots I had pretty much full bars to no less than two, but full data speeds and no dropped calls or dropped data! The true testament to use in China was when I took a 4 hours HSR (high speed rail/bullet) train from Beijing to Tai Shan (popular tourist mountain), traveling up to 137mph/220kmph and was able to maintain a good continuous, relatively clear/non-pixelated 30-min FaceTime phone call over 3G (not wi-fi) to my wife and kids in Los Angeles! I was stunned.. as I know I'd be hard pressed to get that same level of service on AT&T where I live, which I've had to supplement at home with one of the micro-cell units. The phone even had reception up at the top of the Tai Shan summit 1500+ meters above sea level (tho I think they cheated and stuck a cell tower up there somewhere). The main point is no deathgrip issues, no poor call or data issues in and around Beijing or Shanghai, probably because the government can erect towers anywhere and anytime they see fit. It may be different if you head out to the fringe-lands, but then again if there is no cell signal out there.. phone/data services are probably the least of your concerns.
So, I'm sure the native residents will be quite happy with the quality of data services, not sure about the pricing or the adoption rate of the data plans, especially considering how they are also paying nearly full price for their actual handsets. I know travelers to China with unlocked iPhones will not be disappointed with the quality of the cell services, however the Great Firewall filtering Facebook/MySpace/Youtube/Twitter/etc... that's a whole different story and Wi-Fi access plus VPN IS a necessity! VPN over 3G just doesn't happen as China Unicom, at least from my attempts at using the combo, seem to block it.
As just a short and sweet aside, Taiwan's Chunghwa cell/data service is fast, unfiltered and signal is pretty decent, but does drop out to "No Service" quite frequently on their HSR from their Taipei to Kaohsiung, so no accolades here.
Oh, I've seen and handled their copy-cat fake iPhone 4 and iPad in person and they are total obvious knock-offs. They might fool someone from a distance, but once you hold it, totally obvious. The fake iPhone 4 is thicker, plasticky feeling and the OS is choppy and a poor substitute. The knock-off is for people who buy a fake unit to give the impression of owning an iPhone 4. It's like buying a Ferrari body kit for your Toyota MR2. The iPad fake is similar with plastic body, but oddly the frame size of the fake is smaller with a screen size closer to 7-8", which made me think at the time of its relevance to the rumors of a real iPad with a 7" screen. The fakes are poor substitutes for the real thing, but prior to the official Apple launches, I think many local residents may have been fooled into thinking those were the real things.
Comments
Can't avoid it, your stink is on the site.
Wow. I thought this was a meaningful discussion about the iPhone in China. Your post sounds like a personal attack to me.
I would respond to your insult but if I do, I will be banned like I was last week for defending myself against another personal attack.
So that being the case, I will just say, yes, your right. I do stink.
Mods, I hope I behaved correctly. And to the AI community, I hope I haven't offended any of you with my personal opinions. I know how sensitive you are.
Bless your heart. Even when I'm not here you think of me. Okay, I wouldn't want to disappoint you.
Does demand really outstrip supply or is Apple just a small potatoes company that is unable to execute? It's still 3 weeks before iPhone 4 ships in the US after all these months. And from what I read on the iTunes bug fix story, good luck getting your music to play on the "best iPod we've ever made."
Welcome to the big leagues Apple. Do you have what it takes to be a player?
The second biggest and most valuable company in the world is just a small potatoes company?
I guess...
Well. What ever makes you feel better about yourself and your opinion.
One of your more ridiculous posts. You are losing your touch... or is it that you are touched... oh well whichever.
No it's not. Apple has shown repeatedly that it is not ready to compete with other hardware and software companies. They have done very well as a niche market, but now thanks to the iPhone, they are main stream. How are they doing?
Well, let's see. Millions on antenna technology which resulted in... well, you know.
Crippled iTunes 10 that cant rip a cd or play a song.
Months to fix hobbled iPhone 3G
Proximity sensor that was fine three years ago that took months to fix on iphone 4.
Apple TV that only has deals with two content providers.
iPad that has no magazine subscription plan in place months after delivery.
Computers with cracked displays and yellow monitors
Need more?
The second biggest and most valuable company in the world is just a small potatoes company?
I guess...
Well. What ever makes you feel better about yourself and your opinion.
I don't have the stats in front of me, but Apple is certainly a smaller company than Microsoft, a rival software developer. I think they are not as big as Sony or Samsung, rival hardware companies.
No matter how you slice it, Apple has issues executing and instead of making excuses for them, they need to fix them. They had to call a freaking press conference to explain to the world that their iOS4 software wasn't drawing bars correctly for three years and to give free cases for...well, you know.
Now they want to sell iPhones to the bootleg capital of the planet and they run out of phones on the first day?
Consumer Reports must be furious.
Give them time...they'll flip-flop
Anyway... this looks to be Apple's year in China. After a slow start customers are really warming up to Apple's sense of aesthetics and world-class tech. I'd love to hear more from Apple/iPhone fans in China (besides Hong Kong).
Talking about Hong Kong, iPhones have already flooded the city.
BTW I wish the mods would use an IP or even a MAC Address to ban him / her / it.
Tell them how to do it, because what they've been doing up to now hasn't been very effective.
Talking about Hong Kong, iPhones have already flooded the city.
Yes, that's why I'd like to hear from beyond Hong Kong... They are different.
just type in 'Chinese iPhone knockoff' into Google ... you'll get a hefty return of stories. But if this site allows links, I'll put in just one of the stories:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-9...r-apple-2009-8
Hope this helps
...none of those articles talk about how mind-bogglingly awesome those devices are compared to the original, as you averred earlier. Perhaps you have something a little bit more in the way of supporting your commentary?
... start getting some intelligence? I had a good laugh at that one. Trust me, I have enough to banter with the likes of you.
My comment was merely to point out that it's sad China has 1.3 billion peeps, yet struggle to fill even 200,000 orders. I was pointing out 200,000 orders seem low, when the phone has just hit the market. They should have had much more orders, but didn't because there have been black market knockoffs for years. Honestly, I think you did not understand the angle I was spinning the story.
Additionally, my post was about my OPINION, so just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean I lack intelligence.
Oh and here is a link to just one of the knock-offs out there. There are more http://www.businessinsider.com/the-9...r-apple-2009-8
in reference to knowledge of the actual China population, not, you know, smarts, or the ability to reason. For example:
Household income and expenditure
Average household size (2005) 3.1; rural households 3.3; urban households 3.0.
Average annual per capita disposable income of household (2005): rural households Y 3,255 (U.S.$397), urban households Y 10,493 (U.S.$1,281).
Sources of income (2003): rural households ? income from household businesses 75.7%, wages 19.1%, transfers 3.7%, other 1.5%; urban households ? wages 70.7%, transfers 23.3%, business income 4.5%, other 1.5%.
Expenditure: rural (urban) households ? food 45.6% (37.1%), housing 15.9% (10.7%), education and recreation 12.1% (14.4%), transportation and communications 8.4% (11.1%), clothing 5.7% (9.8%), medicine and medical service 6.0% (7.1%), household furnishings 4.2% (6.3%).
Employment
Population economically active (2003): total 760,800,000.
Activity rate of total population 58.9% (participation rates: over age 15 [2001] 77.7%; female [2001] 37.8%; registered unemployed in urban areas [December 2004] 4.2%).
Urban employed workforce (2001): 239,400,000; by sector: state enterprises 76,400,000, collectives 28,130,000, self-employment or privately run enterprises 134,870,000.
Rural employed workforce: 490,850,000.
Here in Canada unless you're a kid that doesn't have any financial responsibilities you can't afford to camp out a day in advance in front of an Apple store or Rogers dealer location with the hope that maybe you'll get your hands on an iPhone 4. I've spent several months calling dealers and Apple as well as gas and parking fees driving around the city trying to buy two iPhone 4 16 GB to give as gifts to my parents. Everywhere I get the same response "Suggest you line up outside the store early as possible as most people line up at 2 AM".
Most of the SMART shoppers will do what my daughter did. Go to the local dealer (Simply Computing, in our case) leave a deposit and they will notify you when your phone comes in .... or, you can do what you prefer .... go on an internet site and whine and bitch .... really!
If you added the troll to your ignore list those of us who have wouldn't have to see his rubbish in your posts.
You can't read what you're not looking at. See the name ... scroll past it, works everytime.
I forgot most competing products are superior to Apple's and that is why Apple is doing so poorly.
Apple's customer satisfaction ratings, profits, sales etc. etc... are all up, contrary to the economy and the wast majority of their competition. Your opinion is contrary to the vast majority, but then again trolls specialize in that, so nothing has changed. Please don't reply by playing the Android versus iOS card unless your willing to compare each manufacturer on a 1 to 1 basis with Apple, not all of them combined versus Apple.
My comment was merely to point out that it's sad China has 1.3 billion peeps, yet struggle to fill even 200,000 orders. I was pointing out 200,000 orders seem low, when the phone has just hit the market. They should have had much more orders, but didn't because there have been black market knockoffs for years.
I don't think a device that looks vaguely similar to the iPhone, not running iOS or matching the hardware of the iPhone 4, is going to hurt Apple much in China. People who go out and buy something so inferior just because it looks like an iPhone were not going to be Apple customers anyway. They are black/grey market customers. This is a reality for any company that wants to sell a premium product in China.
It's kind of like the piracy argument of lost sales -- not everyone who downloads your movie would have bought it so counting it as lost sales is misleading. Your example pushes it to even a further extreme because it would be akin to buying a bootleg copy of a movie, getting it home, and when you watch it's just some guys in their garage poorly acting out the movie. Counterfeiting only becomes a major problem for higher cost items when the black/grey market equivalent is of very good quality. Otherwise it's just a waste of money.
I won't even bother going into the fact that the actual market for the iPhone in China isn't equal to the population of the country due to income disparity. It's like saying the market for a $90,000 sports car in the US is 300 million potential customers. It is not.
Most of the SMART shoppers will do what my daughter did. Go to the local dealer (Simply Computing, in our case) leave a deposit and they will notify you when your phone comes in .... or, you can do what you prefer .... go on an internet site and whine and bitch .... really!
Bad idea because then he would have nothing to complain about. That would ruin his day and then what would he do with all the extra time that he didn't get to waste?
Not everyone thinks the sun shines out of Apple's/SJ's bottom. Deal with it. If someone does post something that's factually incorrect, you should respond thus:
Plus all his stupid aliases
Blackintosh doesn't have any aliases here.
I don't have the stats in front of me, but Apple is certainly a smaller company than Microsoft, a rival software developer. I think they are not as big as Sony or Samsung, rival hardware companies.
How are you measuring size here? Revenues? Employees? If it's by market valuation, you appear not to appreciate that given Apple is the second biggest company in the world, it is impossible for them to be smaller than 3 other companies. The one company they are smaller than is Exxon-Mobil. Having said that, they did only just pass a Chinese company (forget the name) to take their second place, so could easily drop back down to 3rd as markets fluctuate.
No it's not. Apple has shown repeatedly that it is not ready to compete with other hardware and software companies. They have done very well as a niche market, but now thanks to the iPhone, they are main stream. How are they doing?
Well, let's see. Millions on antenna technology which resulted in... well, you know.
Crippled iTunes 10 that cant rip a cd or play a song.
Months to fix hobbled iPhone 3G
Proximity sensor that was fine three years ago that took months to fix on iphone 4.
Apple TV that only has deals with two content providers.
iPad that has no magazine subscription plan in place months after delivery.
Computers with cracked displays and yellow monitors
Need more?
Hmm... It's a better antenna, just a trade-off of touching the "spot". It's a niggle for me. But I can't go back to a 3GS. Not after iPhone 4.
iTunes 10 seems to play my songs, haven't tried ripping a CD.
Yeah, it took a while for the iPhone 3G, but's it's passable now.
Proximity, well, it's fixed. Just in time for when I got my iPhone 4 last Friday.
AppleTV's content providers ~ well, it's the studios that are losing out.
iPad ~ hmm... I wonder what Zinio is or other magazine apps.
Apparently manufacturing is 110% absolutely perfect?
Apple is not perfect, but whether or not it is niche or competes or is mainstream or whatever, the world demands the "flawed" iPhone4 and "crippled" iPad. Most important is that we stay realistic, continue to give feedback and suggestions, they'll listen in the end.
And, for things that Apple can't provide enough of, hopefully many other companies will step up to the plate. Diversity is good.
We are pleased to inform you that one or more of your items has shipped. Please see the details of the shipment below. If you ordered more than one item, they may ship separately.
- The Apple Store
Carrier Name
DHL Global Mail
Delivers by
01/10/2010
INCASE SNAP CASE IPHONE 4 - SMOKE-ZML
1
Part Number: H2326ZM/A
I got my iPhone4 on launch day (actually 1 day before, thanks to FedEx) in the USA and fortunately for me haven't been plagued consistently with any sort of signal attenuation/death grip drama, yellow or green tint issues or even proximity sensor problems. One advantage of an early model is the fact that you get to take advantage of any early exploits and so I "dev-team unlocked" my iPhone, so I could use my new phone while overseas. I got sent to Taipei then Beijing then Shanghai, over the last two months of August and September 2010, and have first hand experience with using the iPhone 4, all before its official launches in Taiwan and China.
My experience in China was actually quite amazing, despite my assumption that service in China would be worse. I went with China Unicom, as China Mobile isn't GSM/frequency compatible with the iPhone 4. I got one of their pre-paid 2GB/month data plans with minimal minutes, as phone calls weren't an issue, but on-demand data was critical to both work and personal life. I had to cut their SIM down, as they didn't have micro SIMs at the time. I'm sure this has changed with an official launch of the iPad and iPhone 4. Everywhere I went... and I mean in core Beijing and even to the countryside to touristy spots I had pretty much full bars to no less than two, but full data speeds and no dropped calls or dropped data! The true testament to use in China was when I took a 4 hours HSR (high speed rail/bullet) train from Beijing to Tai Shan (popular tourist mountain), traveling up to 137mph/220kmph and was able to maintain a good continuous, relatively clear/non-pixelated 30-min FaceTime phone call over 3G (not wi-fi) to my wife and kids in Los Angeles! I was stunned.. as I know I'd be hard pressed to get that same level of service on AT&T where I live, which I've had to supplement at home with one of the micro-cell units. The phone even had reception up at the top of the Tai Shan summit 1500+ meters above sea level (tho I think they cheated and stuck a cell tower up there somewhere). The main point is no deathgrip issues, no poor call or data issues in and around Beijing or Shanghai, probably because the government can erect towers anywhere and anytime they see fit. It may be different if you head out to the fringe-lands, but then again if there is no cell signal out there.. phone/data services are probably the least of your concerns.
So, I'm sure the native residents will be quite happy with the quality of data services, not sure about the pricing or the adoption rate of the data plans, especially considering how they are also paying nearly full price for their actual handsets. I know travelers to China with unlocked iPhones will not be disappointed with the quality of the cell services, however the Great Firewall filtering Facebook/MySpace/Youtube/Twitter/etc... that's a whole different story and Wi-Fi access plus VPN IS a necessity! VPN over 3G just doesn't happen as China Unicom, at least from my attempts at using the combo, seem to block it.
As just a short and sweet aside, Taiwan's Chunghwa cell/data service is fast, unfiltered and signal is pretty decent, but does drop out to "No Service" quite frequently on their HSR from their Taipei to Kaohsiung, so no accolades here.
Oh, I've seen and handled their copy-cat fake iPhone 4 and iPad in person and they are total obvious knock-offs. They might fool someone from a distance, but once you hold it, totally obvious. The fake iPhone 4 is thicker, plasticky feeling and the OS is choppy and a poor substitute. The knock-off is for people who buy a fake unit to give the impression of owning an iPhone 4. It's like buying a Ferrari body kit for your Toyota MR2. The iPad fake is similar with plastic body, but oddly the frame size of the fake is smaller with a screen size closer to 7-8", which made me think at the time of its relevance to the rumors of a real iPad with a 7" screen. The fakes are poor substitutes for the real thing, but prior to the official Apple launches, I think many local residents may have been fooled into thinking those were the real things.