macnn
11/17/2008, 10:25am, EST
Monday, November 17th
Taiwanese iPhone due in December
The iPhone should launch in Taiwan sometime next month, carrier Chunghwa Telecom has announced. The company says it should be the phone's exclusive carrier on the island for the foreseeable future, and has set a rough timeframe of December 2008. No subscription plans have been announced, nor has Chunghwa provided an estimate of phone prices. The carrier will however have to compete with gray-market phones from New Zealand, Hong Kong and even the US, which have been selling for the equivalent of $667 or more.
The announcement of a Taiwanese iPhone could presage the release of a Chinese model, as some Taiwanese executives have previously said that Chinese input code would be finished before that for Taiwan. It is thus believed that both language systems are now finished, leaving little obstacle to deployment in mainland China. Apple is already searching for iPhone workers in the country, and reports have pointed to specialized hardware without Wi-Fi or 3G. The Chinese government is said to pushing for a local cellular standard, TD-SCDMA, instead of conventional 3G.
Filed under: iPhone
Other story tags: China, Taiwan, Chunghwa
, 
, 3
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
(sigh)
There are far clearer indications that Apple will NOT bend over to China's demands for a cripple iPhone -- the fact of a public announcement of Taiwan getting it first (which is a slap in the face to China), and that a fully unlocked iPhone is available via Hong Kong Apple Stores (which essentially makes it available to the Chinese market - namely China Telecom's rival, China Unicom) is Apple's not-so-discrete way of both shaming China, and forcing their hand to agree to Apple's ways...
Re: (sigh)
Yes, because, as we all know, all things revolve around the iPhone. An entire gov't can be shamed into doing business the way a foreign company wants them to by just saying "Hey, we'll give it to Taiwan! How do you like that, boneheads!"
Too bad we couldn't get ATT to stand up to apple and not force a data plan down consumers' throats.
second sigh
Wahoo... Finally, but is it real? I waited and waited and listened to the it'll be here next month, and it'll be here next month. The moment I purchase it Hong Kong, and they make an official announcement that it'll be here next month... Oh well, at least I can use mine on almost any network worldwide.