5 million iPhones to China? Not so fast, says China Unicom

It was just the other day when we were reporting that giant windfall heading to the coffers of Apple after apparently selling 5 million iPhones to China Unicom. Of course, the U.S. tech company was not taking its usual dividend of distributor profit, cutting the price just to get its foot in the door of a country with 1 billion people. Anyway you slice it, it was a win-win deal for the crew from Cupertino. But there is one last thing that is preventing Apple execs from jumping into their vault and celebrating by throwing piles of cash into the air. It seems that China Unicom denies that there is a final agreement between itself and Apple.

Cellular-News reports that  a spokesman for China Unicom, Yi Difei, says that the story about the sale of 5 million iPhones is false. He did admit that talks between his firm and Apple have been going on for some time. Tiffany Yang, an Apple spokesperson in Beijing, says that there are no details about a launch of the iPhone in China. Right now, smuggled units have been making their way into the country, selling for the equivalent of $59 U.S.Dollars to $149 U.S. Dollars. The original story had China Unicom making an official launch of the iPhone in September. Although no final agreement has been signed, both sides seem to be in talks, and where there is smoke, there is fire.

source: cellular-news via unwiredview