Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

""Dozens of Wintek workers claim in a new lawsuit that they were poisoned by a chemical called n-hexane while cleaning glass screens of Apple's iPhone in a Chinese factory."

Grim news to start the news day. At issue is the cleaner the workers were forced to use, n-hexane, instead of the normal alcohol cleaner. N-hexane can cause nerve damage and paralysis, definitely something you don't want to be exposed to, so why would they use it? Apparently the factory manager told them they had to use it because it dried faster and left less streaks on the glass. Wintek was in the news earlier this year when they had a pretty violent strike where over 2,000 workers demonstrated and destroyed equipment and vehicles, over deaths from exposure to chemicals. Guess they didn't learn their lesson, but Apple should take note and do something about this. Crazy.

"At Apple's annual shareholders meeting at its campus in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday, the company revealed it intends to open 25 stores in the nation of China."

This bit of info was from the Apple meeting last Thursday, but China isn't the only place Apple is going to build new stores. They plan on a total of 50 stores this year, including Shanghai, Spokane WA, Boise ID and London according to Tim Cook, Apple COO.

"U.S.-based AT&T isn't the only wireless carrier to see its network come under heavy strain due to the popularity of the iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple's official provider for the handset in China this week reportedly reached the 300,000 unit sales mark."

O2 finally eased the burden, which started this past summer, after investing $48 million USD in their network and adding 200 mobile stations in and around London, which is where the network crashed. But in China it is all good for the iPhone as they have sold over 300,000 units since it was introduced a couple months ago. No word on how the network is handling the increase in iPhones, but since they have most of the internet censored I doubt they have much of a burden on their network.

"According to the Associated Press, the iPhone has finally officially launched in China, with one major feature missing: built-in Wi-Fi. "

So if you go buy an iPhone on the streets in China, it will cost you 20% less than the official version and you get Wi-Fi?Yea, I think I'd go for the street version too.

"The iPhone now has an official ticket to China.Mobile phone operator China Unicom plans to start selling two versions of the iPhone in China in the fourth quarter of 2009, under a three-year deal, an Apple representative confirmed Friday morning."

Not that this was any big shocker, what with all the rumors flying around for weeks, but China Unicom officially will get the iPhone. They haven't released pricing, but have admitted that there will be subsidies and no revenue sharing. What is interesting to me is that they will have their Wi-Fi disabled due to Chinese regulations. The reason? From what I've been reading it's due to the dreaded VOIP threat cutting into the revenues. This isn't an exclusive deal either, as Apple is still in negotiations with China Mobile, even though talks have stalled over issues with the App Store. No Wi-Fi, what a pain that would be, sounds like unlocked iPhones will still be popular if that is the case. 

"$200 iTunes Gift Certificates are selling for less than $3 in China now that a group of local hackers has circumvented Apple's algorithm for creating the digital vouchers and built their own gift certificate generators."

Apparently you don't actually get the "card" per se, you get sent a code sent to you that is supposed to work in the iTunes store. This is becoming big business and they are selling them now for about $2.00 USD since so many are doing it (that old supply and demand equation). According to music industry site Outdustry, 6 months ago they were selling for about $50 USD. Adding to the pressure to make as many sales as they can is the belief that Apple will soon come up with a software fix for the algorithm trick they are using to get these codes to work on iTunes. Some have been found on ebay for use with the US iTunes store so it doesn't appear this is strictly an overseas problem.

"Apple is still having a hard time agreeing on terms so that China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator, can sell the iPhone. The latest hurdle: China Mobile -- like many carriers -- feels threatened by Apple's wildly successful App Store, according to Interfax TMT China."

Apple doesn't want to give up control of iTunes, and China Mobile doesn't like the idea of not having control of the apps that the customers of China Mobile can put on the iPhone. China Mobile also wants their customers to use the planned China Mobile store and not iTunes for their applications. So for round 3 of the negotiations they are once again at a stalemate. This hasn't stopped the iPhone from coming to China, however, where there are an estimated 400,000 unlocked iPhones.