Apple’s new store, located in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district, is now open for business. This is the first in China but the 219th worldwide. Apple sees China as the definitive market for expansion.
Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, said, ‘This is the first of many stores we will open in China. Indeed, another store is planned near to the one that has just opened.’
But the store is not selling, as yet, the iPhone, either in its early 2G (second-generation telephony) version or the new 3G (third-generation telephony) model. Although negotiations between Apple and China Mobile — the world’s and China’s largest mobile service provider — have taken place over the last 12 months, no firm 
details have been announced.
An estimated 400,000 to 1 million of the original iPhones are in use in China, according to research firm In-Stat, despite it never being officially launched here.
The 3G iPhone, launched July 11 in the U.S. and some Asian markets such as Japan and Hong Kong, faces a particular challenge in China. The country does not have commercial 3G service yet, and when it does, it will start with home-grown TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) which is incompatible with other 3G formats.
Now, what Chinese users will be able to get is Apple’s complete line of computers and iPods, including the iPod Touch. What they really want is the iPhone.
Source: PC World
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