Apple inking deal in China to offer Wi-Fi less iPhone?

If Apple truly wants to become a world player in mobile phone sales, they will need to sell their flagship device to the over one billion people in China. It may seem that the Cupertino based company is one step closer in completing a deal in offering the iPhone. Matt Mathison, a Wedge Partners analyst, claims that Apple has applied for a Network Access License with an iPhone missing Wi-Fi connectivity. Rumors have hinted that Apple is cutting out that feature in order to appease the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – they prefer having users rely on local wireless networks. It's a small price to pay to get the admission of selling to over a billion people. Right now, the only option is to buy an unlocked version and brought into the country. The good news is that this will expedite the process to roughly four to six months before it can be made available for sale. If everything goes according to schedule, they are projecting to have it released before the Chinese New Year - which would start mid February. No official word from Apple about the matter, but they have been adamant about having it available within the next year.

via BusinessWeek