When China Unicom launches third-generation telecommunications next month, it hopes to celebrate with a deal to sell Apple’s iPhone exclusively in the country for three years.
当中国联通(China Unicom)下个月推出第三代移动通信(3G)服务时，它希望能与苹果公司(Apple)达成协议，3年内在中国独家销售iPhone手机，以此为贺。
China’s second-largest operator by subscribers and revenue is nearing a deal with the US group and, given the cult status of the device, China Mobile, the former monopolist, has reason to worry.
按用户和收入计，中国联通是中国第二大手机运营商。该公司已接近与苹果达成协议。鉴于iPhone在业内的受尊崇地位，曾经的市场垄断者中国移动(China Mobile)有理由感到担心。
Following the government-ordered restructuring of the industry last year and the award of 3G licences in January, China Mobile’s share of monthly net new subscribers had already fallen to 60 per cent in June from more than 95 per cent last December.
在去年中国政府下令对电信业进行重组，并在今年1月发放3G牌照后，中国移动占每月净增用户的份额开始大幅下滑，已经从去年12月的逾95%下降到今年6月的60%。
In addition, while smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom were given 3G licences for W-CDMA and CDMA 2000 – technologies well established in Europe and the US respectively – China Mobile has been given the mandate to commercialise TD-SCDMA, China’s still struggling homegrown 3G standard.
此外，当规模较小的竞争对手中国联通和中国电信(China Telecom)被授予W-CDMA和CDMA 2000（分别是欧洲和美国的成熟技术）3G牌照时，中国移动获得的任务却是，实现迄今仍不成熟的中国本土3G标准TD-SCDMA的商业化运行。
But its response to the iPhone threat from China Unicom shows what a formidable rival the company is. In the next two months, China Mobile is set to unveil the OPhone, a handset that uses Google’s Android source code but offers customised applications for high-value-added services such as music downloads and mobile TV.
但中国移动对中国联通iPhone威胁作出的反应，体现出前者是一个多么令人畏惧的竞争对手。未来两个月，中国移动将推出使用谷歌Android源代码的OPhone手机。该款手机将为音乐下载和移动电视等高附加值服务提供定制化应用软件。
China Mobile plans to subsidise these high-end handsets for customers with up to 50 per cent off the retail price. For the incumbent in China’s mobile market, this is quite a leap.
中国移动计划向购买这些高端手机的客户提供补贴，最高可能达到手机零售价的50%。对于这家中国移动市场的现有运营企业来说，这是一次巨大的飞跃。
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