iPhonefreak width="190"

Things aren’t going so well for China Unicom, the first official Chinese mobile carrier to offer the iPhone. Earlier last month we reported about their sad launch numbers (only 5,000 sold during the launch weekend), and now it looks like the iPhone is also performing poorly on the popular Chinese e-commerce site Taobao. On a segmented iPhone section of the site, Taobao reports that they’ve only sold two 8GB iPhones, and three 16GB models, since that section launched a few weeks ago.

It’s not surprising that the official Chinese iPhone is doing so poorly. It was released in China without Wi-Fi due to regulations, and it’s also much more expensive than gray-market iPhones imported from abroad which include Wi-Fi. The 32GB 3GS retails for US$1,024 without contract, compared to around $800 in Hong Kong.

PC World also speculates that Chinese users may have trouble adapting to the app stores purchasing model, since they’re not used to making mobile purchases with credit cards. There is likely something to that, and it’s also a sign that the App Store may have to adapt for the Chinese market. I don’t suspect that will be the only locale that forces Apple to rethink their business models.

[Source: PC World]