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."

Comments

WAPI not for the proles

[sakdoctor]

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.

Re:WAPI not for the proles

[Macrat]

An iPhone is expensive to begin with. A large premium will skyrocket the price of black market iPhone. The vast majority of the Chinese iPhone purchasers will not pay this premium for a single feature.

A large part of having an iPhone is that it is a status symbol. Except for a few rich geeks, that does not change much by having wifi enabled.

The market will be miniscule.

Tell that to all the regular Chinese people who have iPhones. Not super rich geeks.

They are sold very cheaply. Most likely they have "fallen off the truck" shortly after leaving the Chinese factory they are made in.

It's all about the benjamins...er....yuan

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

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.

Re:It's all about the benjamins...er....yuan

[beelsebob]

No, much more suspect than that -- Illegally load VoIP apps and make calls over the net = circumvent china's state surveillance.

And what does our FCC think about this?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

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.

Re:And what does our FCC think about this?

[Manip]

Can you stand up to the gov' in any western country either?

You go to a protest, get filmed, facial matched, and get a note in a record. You go for something that requires security clearance and you get denied without reason.

NASA employees and other linked agencies only recently had to reveal all protests they had been in for review. If they failed to list something that might be grounds for termination (and they might be terminated for taking part).

I wouldn't go to a protest. Luckily you can still show civil disobedience online, via letter, and in-person but they're already starting to crack down on the Internet.

PS - This post isn't aimed at the US. The UK, Australia, and France immediately come to mind.

Re:And what does our FCC think about this?

[drinkypoo]

Go out in the street, stand in front of your local courthouse, and chant "The FCC is killing babies." Now, go try the same thing in China, except substitute "The MIIT is killing babies." See how far you get. Come back and let us know how it went.

There is a substantial danger that the US will become China, but the actions of the FCC WRT licensing are not an example of such a warning sign. The actions of the FCC Re: "obscenity" are that warning sign.

It's unfortunate that you were modded Troll, though... Every word of this sentence is true:

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.

Every word of this sentence is highly defensible, and more to the point ontopic when we're talking about Chinese oppression.

Re:And what does our FCC think about this?

[Macrat]

Go out in the street, stand in front of your local courthouse, and chant "The FCC is killing babies."

You should really go try this first in the US and see how far you get.

Re:And what does our FCC think about this?

[drinkypoo]

Go out in the street, stand in front of your local courthouse, and chant "The FCC is killing babies."

You should really go try this first in the US and see how far you get.

Okay, you try it in China while I try it in the USA. Ready? 1 2 3 GO!

Re:And what does our FCC think about this?

[kamapuaa]

I know anti-US comments are an automatic +5 Insightful on Slashdot, but this is absurd.

The MIIT employs huge blocks of censors filtering content, has people arrested for using the Internet wrong, employs huge amounts of people to flood web 2.0 sites with nationalistic messages, places strict limits on the number of foreign movies that can be imported, censors the content of these movies, has banned Cannes-wining filmmaker Lou Ye from making movies for five years because his movie didn't pass government censors, blocks Youtube, Facebook, and some of the most popular internet sites on the web, cuts off all telecommunications in places where minorities are getting killed and might want to report on what's happening, and that's just a few modern examples off the top of my head.

If the FCC did all of this in the US, people (hopefully) would be revolting in the streets.

The FCC has its problems but the MIIT is a terrible monster backed up by a government with a willingness to go military on its own people, and really you're doing a disservice to the very real evilness of the MIIT by saying "Oh yeah America has a version of that too." Honestly you don't have an even casual acquaintance if you think they're fundamentally similar.

Sure, that'll work.

[192939495969798999]

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.

Re:Sure, that'll work.

[kamapuaa]

It's not a nation of super-hackers, it's that the government basically allows or even encourages piracy, even the most popular websites (baidu.com, youku.com) heavily depend on IP piracy for their popularity. Whereas the government is taking a stand against cell phones with wifi, and Chinese cell-phones generally do not have it, aside from black-market iPhones, really.

Cell phones with a wi-fi free Chinese version don't get hacked to have wi-fi.

Pointless

[ebonum]

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?

Re:Load illegal applications?

[ceoyoyo]

You noted that the story is from China? And are aware that China has different laws than the US? It appears that VOIP capability on cell phones is indeed illegal in China, which would make loading such an app on an iPhone (or Blackberry, or Pre) in China indeed illegal.

Re:Double hobble

[DECS]

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?

Apple launches HTTP Live Streaming standard in iPhone 3.0