The launch of the iPhone 4 in China shows how Apple is getting faster at rolling out products in China.
Apple launched the original iPhone in June 2007 in the US but it was never sold officially in China.
Nearly two and a half years later, Apple launched the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS simultaneously in China.
The iPad took five months or so between its first sales in the US in April and the start of official sales in China.
The iPhone 4 further brought down the lag time to three months.
Wall Street Journal Blogs says Apple still has plenty of work to do. For example, it has an App Store but hasn’t translated the store’s interface into Chinese. It also quotes prices in US dollars and accepts only dual-currency credit cards for App Store/iTunes purchases.