October 30th, 2009, 11:03PM in Business, Technology by Marc LequimeView Comments
The iPhone has arrived in China – but the Chinese aren’t happy about the lack of an incredibly important feature – the ability to use Wi-Fi, caused by China’s recent ban of Wi-Fi, which is now lifted. Really, the iPhone is losing out a huge market share because of the lack of a Wi-Fi functionality. I can see where the anger is coming from – once again, a device that lacks a feature that is standard with the iPhone, lacking from a country – like iPhone tethering missing from the US, thanks to AT&T.
Paying around $750 to $950 for a Phone like that that completely lacks the Wi-Fi feature is ridiculous. It’s literally a piss-take, and I’m sure this will seriously hurt the iPhone sales in this country.
However, with most things, there’s a reason – and this is because of China’s ban of WiFi, where their replacement, WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) is promoted by their government. The ban was soon lifted, but too late after the production of an entire batch of iPhones without the WiFi feature.
It may be too late – if the Chinese know that they’ll soon receive an iPhone with WiFi in store, what’s going to happen to current stock?
Thanks to http://mashable.com for this story.
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