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Apple To Sell Wi-Fi-less iPhone In China
Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that the Chinese government has received an application from Apple seeking a Network Access License to sell the iPhone for officially-sanctioned use in the country. However, the application is for an iPhone that does not include Wi-Fi connectivity, a sticking point in negotiations with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which wants the phone to only run on the cellular networks. 'Apple was hellbent on having the iPhone be Wi-Fi-enabled,' says analyst Matt Mathison. 'The Chinese government has been just as adamant that it not be.' For many years now, China ministry officials told wireless consumers that Wi-Fi would not be allowed on mobile phones for fear that consumers might be tempted to illegally load VoIP apps and make calls over the Net, undermining carriers' interests. However Glenn Fleishman says that China uses WAPI, a homegrown proprietary extension to Wi-Fi that only a handful of Chinese manufacturers have access to, and that equipment sold in China must have WAPI support and chips made in China. Fleishman speculates that China's WAPI standard contains backdoor technology to allow China to monitor any communications sent over 'secure' links."
Since when has loading an application on the iphone been illegal ? Mind this is Apple!
http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
It's bad enough that Apple loads their phone with anti-features, here's an edition which the Chinese government also gets the privilege of crippling even further. What's next, a special edition shipped with elephant poop? Knowing Apple and knowing consumers, that will just make it sell better... *sigh*
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
WAPI is only for the inner party. The proles get bog standard WPA2 consumer equipment.
Also, Chinese consumers will get the WiFi enabled one on the black-market.
In general, the more government interference, the better developed the black-market will be.
Let me translate:
Illegally load VOIP apps and make calls over the net = cut into the revenue stream for one of the state owned telecom monopolies that doles out substantial sums to friends/relatives/mistresses of the same folks that regulate the telecom industry in the country.
You don't really think those government functionaries who earn the legitimate equivalent of a secretary's salary in the west can afford the garages full of luxury cars, the multiple homes, and the expense of sending their children to overseas universities, eh?
Welcome to China.
"for fear that consumers might be tempted to illegally load VoIP apps and make calls over the Net, undermining carriers' interests."
Ah yes, the free market catering to consumer's wishes.
China turns out to be a good student at this capitalism thing - that apparently can not do without government interference on its behalf.
The FCC is the American version of China's MIIT.
If you think the MIIT has that much power over the Chinese people, how much more power does the FCC have over the entire world?
It's funny, there are so many similarities between China and the U.S. Both are huge world powers that use their military and economic power to intimidate neighbors. Both are led by an oligarchy of unremovable political parties. And both have populaces that are brainwashed and fiercely patriotic.
China is a good mirror of ourselves, so when this type of thing comes up, it's a good idea to take note and think about how we ourselves are being manipulated right here at home.
iPhone gets wifi at home, Starbucks, ... places where the user directly or indirectly pays for the wifi. If they are allowed to use VoIP on the laptop, then why can't they use VoIP on the iPhone? If there is no wifi in the area, then the user must use the cellular network, anyways. It sounds as if there is a secondary interest, "to allow China to monitor any communications sent over 'secure' links." I suppose cellular networks may be easier to monitor than VoIP on the internet.
While there is a lot of speculation that China's WAPI standard would contain a backdoor, there is very little factual evidence (except to paraphrase - "it is in China's character"). The problem is that China didn't release the entire specification to the standards organisations and that is likely a large part of why their protocol was rejected.
While I have no idea if China's WAPI would contain a backdoor, I do wonder what the purpose of adding it would be. Since the internet in China is heavily monitored and filtered already, why watch the end-points? If someone is using WiFi to spread information which China doesn't approve, having a backdoor won't help nor hurt China's ability to identify that person. Just track it to the WiFi Router/Repeater and then run around with a scanner looking for a laptop (the scanner doesn't need to decode).
Very interesting story and one would hope that perhaps the upper Apple management might ultimately make a statement by not selling a "crippled" product in China. unlikely I know.
However, where exactly is the gay angle to this story?
Because of course, how unlikely is it that the original poster would have used the word "gay" in anything other than its "happy" or "homosexual" meanings?
Certainly not used in a pejorative, slightly homophobic, "high school" sense of "gay" as stupid.
I mean that would be ridiculous and even bringing the issue up is unfair to the original poster. So apologies to you sir, for even implying that you are a 13 year old frightened by his sexuality.
Isn't there a iPGP or iSecure app for people to send secure text messages? How will China block that, did they get Apple to preinstall a keylogger as well?
Bigtime Consulting - "We're the best because we cost the most"
Wapi is as secure as WiFi. and thus it also has all the same flaws as WiFi security wise. but i doubt they engineered a backdoor, as it's also used by the government and any backdoor they can access others can also access. they probably have some crazy security algorithm they rather keep secret.
was that they be colored red.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotations_from_Chairman_Mao_Zedong
...since day 1, as far as I've seen here in Hong Kong.
So you have a society that:
1. sells movies all over the place before they even hit the theaters,
2. sells pirated software from major companies all over the place,
3. hacks basically anything and everything just for fun,
4. probably has a nationwide pringles-can wifi darknet,
and you think you can "disable" wifi on a phone there? Yeah, good luck with that. When you're done with that, maybe you can hold back the ocean with a broom.
stuff |
I live in Shanghai. If you are on the subway during rush hour in the morning or evening, I challenge you to look around and not see someone with an iPhone. They are everywhere here. There are stores within 200 meters of my apartment that have iPhones for sale. This is a silly argument. The iPhone is readily available in China.
Here is the more interesting point. The iPhones here are all smuggled in, mostly through Hong Kong. Since they have been smuggled in, you don't have to pay import taxes. If Apple gets permission to sell an "official" iPhone, no one will buy it because you will still be able to buy a gray market iPhone for 30% less. Why would anyone pay extra for an official iPhone?
Sorry I didn't make it clear in previous post.
I'm not sure what this 'no WiFi' thing is aiming at but be honest 802.11-capable gears have been pretty common in China. For example these 'Shanzhai' internet tablets* support 802.11b/g and I haven't seen any mention of WAPI.
* ARM11 running Linux and costs less than US$150, nice toy.
If the government's fear is about VoIP, why don't they just put equipment in place to block the protocol? Then again, if you think about it, it is less about VoIP and probably more of paying less to the state owned telecoms company. Its amazing, just when you think you know how totalitarian China is, you read something that makes you realise it is just a bit more.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
What is China doing here is taken straight from the Evil empire's best practices manual.
Microsoft?
Profits first, principles second. This is yet another example of when business leaders let greed blind them to the real costs involved. Sure, Apple will profit, but at what cost to us all? This is is just social pollution, they aren't dumping effluent into an ocean, they're dumping corruption into a society. I'm constantly surprised at just how little ethical sensitivity is seemingly required these days. Chalk up another one for the tyrants.
Speculates?!? Geez, its china, what would you expect?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
By all accounts over a million (the last number I saw is 1.5m) real iPhones are in use in China, so chances are, yes, they are real.
To the person claiming that the grey market iPhones would be cheaper: if the source is HK, there they sell for 800USD -- then you need to pay the middle man and retailer on top of that. Presumably the official mainland phone will get carrier subsidy -- so yes they will be much cheaper, and that is the point...
The main reason the iPhone has been held up in Korea is WIFI. The carriers here don't want it and there is not a single phone here currently that has WIFI. Although the iPhone 3G and 3GS can be used here (they have network support) they have not been accepted by the carriers so far. In the last month both have passed testing by the Korean FCC (Radio Research Agency). However, you still can't import an iPhone here, since carriers require all IMEIs to be registered with them. They so far have refused to register IMEIs for imported iPhones. Supposedly Apple will be reaching an agreement in the next week regarding selling the iPhone here in Korea. Hopefully their agreement won't be the same as that in China!
Beijing and Shanghai have a quantity of fully functional iphones see here->
http://tinyurl.com/2nvv4o
tip: look for small points of blue.
Assume that no initial coverage was present these must be requests from GPS bearing iphones that sniff for surrounding wifi points.
doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the importance of location when controlled by the Chinese regime.
All major phone systems have special back-door capabilities built-in. I used to design and build phone systems for small company. One day we got a visit by a nice man in black and following that, our systems had the standard back doors too. This is not secret at all, it is just not well known amongst the public.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
From the article
must have WAPI support and chips made in China
Where else would they be made?
What problem is Apple having? There were some stupid laws on WIFI enabled phones, but Nokia's E-series WIFI enabled phones have already been released in China early this year.
Furthermore, there are plenty of iphones for sale in China on the black markets. Plenty of people using them on the subways and such...
What's next, a special edition shipped with elephant poop? Knowing Apple and knowing consumers, that will just make it sell better... *sigh*
Did you mean "smell better"?
There is just no other reason why the Chinese government would choose its own standard.
The information ministry has already noted that mobile communications have to be "controlled". I can bet you anything that China already has in place a method to filter or control WAPI traffics.
It looks like a tolerable little handheld computer wifi device.
If they'll sell it without the cellphone feature, it ought to be fun to have.
Do I need to get the Communists to order this, or will the free market ... oh, never mind
Umm, I'm wondering if Apple is going to just mega-halfass what's needed to Jailbreak the firmware over there. I mean SOMEONE is going to figure out how to enable it. "opps" Apple can just blame it on "hackers"
It's not like we haven't jailbroken every version of the OS over here within days of its release. Just disable the wifi in firmware. Someone will hack it.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Now thers's some freakin' weird-ass aliens if ever there were freakin' weird-ass aliens. Uuuuugly ones, too.
I took a portable wifi router on my last trip to China because my N800 only communicates over WiFi or Bluetooth. Both were in my carry-on luggage and weren't given a second look at the border.
This must mean that the hotel connection was completely monitored already.
What would you do with a GSM based iPhone in Korea ?
As I understand it, the main network is CDMA as you said, while the 3G networks are compatible with the iPhone. If you look at the iPhone specs page, you will see the supported network types: UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz). As I understand it, there is actually a GSM network here for people who are roaming. However, I don't believe the iPhone would be using that, it would be using the 3G UMTS/HSDPA network instead. That should limit it to 5 hours talk time instead of 12, but it will work.
I'm confident that the iPhone will work here once it is released, even though I'm not 100% clear on the technical details. Apple and the Korean Telecom companies have been discussing releasing the iPhone since the 3G came out, they just haven't reached an agreement yet. Supposedly we will hear the final decision this week. However, there is no technical reason why it won't work here. It's been in the Korean news quite a bit.
When I was reading the summary, I was convinced it had to do with preventing people from using wifi to spawn non-filtered (local) networks to communicate. It didn't even occur to me that it might have something to do with voip.