The iPhone is a very popular handset in many of the global markets, but for some reason has seen lacklustre sales in China with some saying this was due to the delay in launching the iPhone in China while some have said it is due to the lack of wireless internet capabilities and other put it down to the high asking price.

Well according to an article over on the WSJ by Loretta Chao, a study conducted in China by CMR, a market research group, of 2,000 mobile phone users between the ages of 22 and 32 has found that the lacklustre sales of the iPhone could be due to not wanting to sign up for a 2 year agreement and the unpopularity of China Unicom.

Apparently while the iconic iPhone is “highly desired” less than ten percent of those surveyed use China Unicom the majority of which said they are unhappy with China Unicom’s service. Furthermore 95 percent of those surveyed said that believes China Mobile had better coverage around China and was more stable. China Mobile is currently in talks with Apple over delivering a TD-SCDMA iPhone which you can read about (here)

According to Shaun Rein, the managing director of the firm, in China grey market iPhone handsets are easily available and can be used on a competing network and so there is less incentive to purchase an official iPhone from China Unicom.