App Store Comes to China

    The deal with China Unicom and the subsequent start of official iPhone sales in China is good news for Apple, but even better news for the 100,000 developers whose software is sold on the App Store.

    The potential of the Chinese market is not worth talking about. Now there are 690 million mobile subscribers, which is more than in Europe and the USA combined. China Unicom, a small provider by Chinese standards, has about 141 million subscribers (more than the population of Russia). At the same time, China Unicom will not be an exclusive partner of Apple. Soon, it is expected to sign a contract with China Mobile, whose services are used by 500 million people.

    According to experts, next year 10-20% of all global sales of iPhones will fall on China. Already now there are "illegally" used about 1.5 million iPhones purchased abroad.

    The official launch of iPhone sales in China is scheduled for Q4 2009.

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