China-released iPhone may lack some features

The Apple iPhone handsets set to be released by China Mobile in the mainland market may lack the 3G and Wi-Fi network functionality found in the phones elsewhere, as phones with those functions have not yet been approved by regulators in Beijing, the South China Morning Post reported, citing the Daiwa Institute of Research. Daiwa analyst Calvin Huang was cited as saying Taiwan Hon Hai Precision Industry, which assembles the iPhone, was waiting for confirmation from the government to ship the iPhone with the 3G and Wi-Fi features disabled. Though mainland 3G networks using China’s TD-SCDMA standard are up and running, the iPhone uses WCDMA technology, the standard in Europe. Though still not officially released on the mainland, iPhones have been available to Chinese customers on the black market for over a year.