Sales of the iPhone in China appear to have picked up but still remain well behind other markets, according to data released by China Unicom.
The carrier said yesterday that it sold more than 100,000 phones since the device hit shelves at the end of October. That's well up from the meager 5,000 devices it sold over the first four days after launch, but still paltry compared to sales of the smartphone in the United States.
When the iPhone first launched in the U.S. market in 2007, Apple sold 270,000 units in the first 30 hours.
Sales of the iPhone in China are hampered by the device's high price, which falls between $730 and $1,020. The availability of Wi-Fi-enabled gray market devices also appears to have an impact on mainstream sales. There are an estimated 2 million gray market devices in the country. The Chinese government mandated that initial iPhones sold by China Unicom not have Wi-Fi.
China Unicom is China's second-largest carrier with a subscriber base of 140 million.