Baidu has announced that they will be free to provide Baidu iPhone input method-SDK for iOS APP developer (Software Development Kit), the developer can be ’embedded’ input in types of APP, so that users under normal circumstance use Baidu input in some relevant application.

As the iPhone is not open permission of input method, user need to ’Jail Break’ if they use third-party input method. Once the user who are not going to ’Jail Break’ or familiar with operation, then the choice of input method is limited, only Apple-approved. Input Method ‘embedded’, when text goes into the input state, it will start the associated applications.

Sogou (a kind of search engine in China, http://www.sogou.com/) had also been announced to open implantable input method SDK for iOS APP developer.

According to related reports, Baidu Search App iPhone version has been released recently. The relevant responsible person of Baidu mobile phone input method said:”This is just beginning”, “In fact, before we announced, there are many developers to contact and seek cooperation. At present, we are starting to co-operation with many well-known application providers, and we expect that there will be more ‘embedded’ input method applications on-line in the future. ”

Several hundred people lined up outside a 40-foot cylindrical glass wall that contains the Apple logo at the 1,500-square-meter store in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China?s financial hub, before it opened at 10 a.m. local time.

Apple is expanding its network to reach more customers in China, where its sales trail Nokia and Lenovo, and said this week it plans ?many? more Apple stores for China. The company?s first China store opened in Beijing in July 2008.

Unlicensed distributors sold more than 2 million iPhones on a so-called gray market, according to Sandy Shen, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Shanghai. China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., the only authorized Chinese carrier offering the smartphone, sold fewer than 1 million, she said.

Source : Konaxis

Alipay and industry institution mobile Internet Great Wall today set up China’s first “wireless creditable business” coalition. Qiu Changheng when communicating with the media did not respond positively to news of cooperation with iPhone (mobile Internet), but he said Alipay indeed was in contact with the Apple.

The background of Apple and Alipay discussing cooperation was that Apple has been working with China Unicom, iPhone is officially sold in China. According to introduction, App Store abroad accepted mostly credit card payments, but in China credit card payment is not popular, Apple also noticed this problem, so it hoped cooperation with Alipay would resolve their payment problems.

QIU Chang-heng said that at present, Alipay have emerged at App Store, which was “the first payment method for Apple mobile phones”. On the other hand, App Store Web site has also released Alipay mobile client end and available for free download, which means Alipay application has got Apple approval.

According to Qiu Changheng the current mobile Alipay payment application was completely developed by independent team, and the only connection with computer terminal Alipay team is the “accounts system are totally connected”. Qiu Changheng believed that if mobile payment wanted a great development, the most critical two factors were open and credibility.

Unicom, China’s mobile operator with the second-largest subscribers base, will offer the Chinese version of the trendy smartphone which does not include Wi-Fi networking support, to its customers in eight service packages costing between 126 yuan (18.5 dollars) and 886 yuan a month, according to a statement on its website. These packages will include 450MB to 4GB of mobile data access, 120 to 880 SMS messages, 15 to 95 MMS messages, and between 320 to 3,000 minutes of talk time.

Unicom and US high-tech giant Apple announced last month a multi-year deal to offer the handset in the country, in a hope to attract high-end users to turn around weak performance in competition with rivals China Mobile and China Telecom.

In addition to the iPhone, Unicom will also introduce to China?s mobile market more than 80 different types of handsets next month, as part of the official start of the carrier’s third-generation wireless network on October 1, it added.

Third generation or 3G telecom services are based on technology that permits transmission of images and video at high speed.

For an unspecified duration, Unicom said it would subsidise the cost of the new mobile phones, including the iPhone, by up to 4,253 yuan, although it was not clear how much each handset would cost. Customers will have to buy at least 186 yuan in pre-paid calls and agree to a lock up period of two years.

China is one of the last major markets where the widely popular iPhone is officially not sold, though analysts say the country is the world’s biggest market for smuggled, “unlocked” and counterfeited iPhones.

China has an unmatched 710.5 million mobile users as of the end of August, according to government data.

China Unicom?s subscribers base was at 141.9 million by the end of August, while its bigger rival China Mobile had 503 million subscribers.

Source : Konaxis

G2 cell phones adopted Android phone platform which was developed by Google.

Kai-fu Lee was also evaluating the two mobile phones in his article, “relatively speaking, GPhone’s biggest benefit is the synchronization function for the address book and Gmail.”

Earlier this year, Kai-fu Lee also once switched mobile phones, from iphone to Gphone, because some people questioned him why he was using his competitor’s product instead of his own company- Google. Kai-fu Lee accepted good advice, and immediately changed his phone to Gphone.

Unicom has agreed to buy iPhones from Apple for 3,000 yuan each, the Shanghai Securities News quoted sources as saying.

The mobile firm will guarantee total revenue of at least 5 billion yuan a year for Apple after committing to buy one to two million phones annually.

The deal does not require Unicom to share any of the revenue it generates from mobile-data charges with Apple, reports said.

Merrill Lynch analyst Cynthia Meng believes Unicom will introduce the 16-gigabyte version of the iPhone 3GS in September or October, potentially at an “affordable mid-range” price below 3,000 yuan for customers who commit to a contract.

Unicom could launch the 32-gigabyte version of the iPhone 3GS by the end of the year, she said.

Source : Konaxis

The product eliminates the WiFi function but keeps the support of 3G network, Bluetooth and other popular features, said an anonymous source in Foxconn.

It also said the negotiations between Apple and China Unicom is nearly over and the two firms will announce the details in the next few weeks.

According to experts, China’s ban on the WiFi function in cellphones, the amount of handset subsidy, and Apple’s insistence on running its App Store in China are the major obstacles that are keeping iPhone out of China.

China Unicom hopes that by introducing iPhone, the company could increase its appeal to high-end cellphone users in China and also challenge China Mobile’s top perch.

But experts think iPhones may not pose a threat for China Mobile, as the barring of the WiFi function will keep off many prospective users. They said most of the high-end users in China are still those that mostly use voice services and do not have great interest in 3G services.

The Chinese telecom regulations banned the use of WiFi functions in mobile phones due to fears over IP-telephony and the support for WAPI, a domestic rival for WiFi.

Source : Konaxis