The Iphone is coming out this Friday and will be available in 36 countries on Friday, with more to follow. China and Taiwan are missing from the list. Seems strange, since China has a huge demand for grey market iPhones, the iPhone is manufactured in China by a Taiwanese firm. And then this report BBC NEWS | Business | Apple pulls China iPhone release.

My guess is there is a technology issue, where China is trying to develop their own cell phone technology. Not to mention the revenue issue, where China's Mobile company is getting the benefit of gray market phones with no added cost to them. I have seen so many ethnic Chinese with unlocked iPhones. Taiwan I am not sure, may be another monopoly situation where they don't feel a need to share the revenue. The iPhone will be sold in Hong Kong.

Chinese handwriting functionality added to iPhone firmware which will make it even better for the Chinese market. This should result in some great software applications being written for the iPhone. The iPhone used to only display Chinese Characters, where not it allows them also to be input.

Yes, I am thinking about getting the iPhone when it comes out. May be not the first day. I am surprised the GPS is not as good as I thought it would be (weak antenna). The monthly data/voice cost is a bit higher than I would want. I don't care about the data access, I just want the combination phone & calendar. I used to have a series of Palms that all died.

Labels: china's future