One more thing ... Beijing green lights iPhone in China

Apple's infamously stage-managed launch events have been upstaged by China's government, which let it be known the fruity phone company has been granted a license to operate its new iPhone 5S and 5C models on China Mobile’s forthcoming 4G network after its Beijing launch yesterday. The Ministry of Industry and Information …

[Anonymous Coward]

NSA: Thanks Apple for all the China traffic

NSA will need to but another million hard drives to store all the traffic Apple is collecting from China Telecom, China Unicom etc.

[Michael Thibault]

Re: NSA: Thanks Apple for all the China traffic

And then there's the touchy little problem of off-shoring the translation work.

[RogerThat]

Re: NSA: Thanks Apple for all the China traffic

The NSA will have a very hard time bypassing Apple's fingerprint technology, if I am correct in my understanding of what the security experts have said.

[Cliff]

5C insult?

Seeing a 5C will reportedly cost more than prey much every other phone for sale in China, and looks like a shitty plastic toy, it's not really going for the high flyer or bulk mid markets. Makes you wonder where it is targeting, to be honest.

And if there isn't a dual-SIM version, why would anyone want one in a country where some phones handle upto 4 SIMs so you can receive and route calls, texts, data the most efficient way available. Multi-SIM might be the Achilles heel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 5C insult?

'Shitty plastic toy' hey?

Don't let emotion get the better of you.

It's just an underwhelming bar of colour that is aimed at girls/women and it will probably sell like hot cakes.

[Frankee Llonnygog]

Re: 5C insult?

"Shitty plastic toy"

I think you're confusing it with those mini phones popular in prisons.

[Piro]

Re: 5C insult?

He didn't say it /was/ a shitty plastic toy, rather that it looks like one.

It is an odd thing, the iPhone 5C. It looks very cheap, but the price really isn't.

[RogerThat]

Re: 5C insult?

An Obamaphone it ain't.

[CommercialBod]

Cunning plan...

I suspect Apple are going to let the rest of the world buy the new iPhone at full price and then do a launch with China Mobile with a lower price to drive volume (perhaps disguised in a monthly fee) With the cost of the iPhone to make so much lower than the selling price, they can afford to drop the price a lot and still make money on each device but don't want to lose the profits from people who will pay full price.

[Tim Worstal]

WSJ said

That the approval was of TD-SCDMA capable iPhone 5s and 5c. Plus TD-LTE.

And they appear to have different Apple model numbers than the ones announced.

Quite what's going on no one's sure. But one guess is that Apple has them ready but didn't quite seal the deal with China Mobile

[zooooooom]

Translation

China has persuaded Apple to replace the nsaCallHome() method with prcCallHome()

[RogerThat]

Mao's Mecca

China is more evil than the U.S., though it is friendlier to free enterprise. But that only goes so far. There can be no doubt that China's government is in control and can destroy any company's business in China anytime it wants to.

Be very careful about your China investments,Apple. The government believes it has an absolute right to take everything you make.

China controls the banks, what is taught in the education system, and the health system. These are Lenin's three main vectors to control the population and obtain absolute,dictatorial power.

Why do you think the U.S. government controls the banks,the ability of colleges to accept students who can get loans, and administration of our health care system, Obamacare?

Don't get me wrong. V.I. Lenin was a great hero to the Russian people, who still line up to view his preserved body under glass. He kep Russians working, refused to cave in to Europe and made sure only a few hundred thousand people starved under the managed economy.