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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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Speculates?!? Geez, its china, what would you expect?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You have noticed that virtually any cell phone you get from any carrier is crippled somehow, have you not?
How many Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones supported WiFi in Europe at the release of the iPhone?
How many US phones supported WiFi at the release of the iPhone? Not very many. Verizon Wireless had been staunchly opposed to functional WiFi (and Bluetooth) on its phones, and Apple essentially forced AT&T into being cool with WiFi because in 1997 AT&T could barely support the EDGE traffic generated by iPhone users.
Note that the China-export versions of Nokia's flagship N95 do not support WiFi, for the same reason.
And what are these anti-features of the iPhone? You mean a battery that doesn't fall out when you drop the phone? A camera with less than 8MP in its tiny sensor so that you can't record noise? A software platform that keeps requiring you to buy apps that don't exist for Symbian or other struggling platforms? A browser that not only works, but looks so good it has the rest of the industry in an embarrassed panic to clone it? Or are you just dropping turd bombs because you're bitter that Apple released a good product that a lot of people like?
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