iPhone 4S Available in Shenzhen, China on January 13th 2012

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The iPhone 4S will make its debut in China on Friday, January 13th. That is tomorrow. Apple has been pushing toward a bigger presence in China, after opening stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

The prices of iPhone 4S in mainland China are: 

4988 RMB for 16-gigabyte 

5888 RMB for 32-gigabyte 

6788 RMB for 64-gigabyte

Free iPhone 4S's by China Unicom?!

On the same launch day, the sole provider of the iPhone, China Unicom, will be offering a deal that means locking in a user into a multi-year contract with the promise of a free iPhone 4S. 

Contracts are offered at 286 RMB per month for a 16-gigabyte/32-gigabyte iPhone 4S on a three-year contract and 386 RMB per month for 16-gigabytes on a two-year contract. 

Other channels to purchase iPhone 4S:

Suning Stores/Gome Stores/Telecom Business Halls/Online Purchase

Suning Stores: 

Book with 200 RMB deposit. You need to provide: Name, ID No. , Phone No., and preferred iPhone version & color. Then you will get the priority to buy.

Shenzhen Sunning Stores (Note the locations, you might ask your Chinese friend for help as it’s all in Chinese):

Gome Stores: 

On sale on Jan 13, but cannot promise sufficient supplies

Shenzhen Gome Stores (in Chinese):

China Unicom Business Halls: On sale on Jan 13. You can only buy with contracts butcannot promise sufficient supplies 

Shenzhen China Unicom Business Halls (in Chinese):

Online Purchase:

Official China Apple website:

http://www.apple.com.cn/

http://store.apple.com/cn/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

Official China Unicom website:

http://iphone.10010.com/

You can also buy from other stores, but please keep in mind that counterfeit Apple products have been a problem in China in the past, a big proponent of why Apple wishes to strengthen their presence in China. In 2011, a number of fake Apple stores were discovered, which were shortly shut down by Chinese authorities, Digital Journal reported. Also, a very popular counterfeit version of the iPhone, the hiPhone, released their own "hiPhone 5" before Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S. The fake iPhone originally could be found on the Chinese online retailer Taobao.

iPhone 4S finally comes to China. Hope you can get one you have been longing for in Shenzhen, China.

 (Reporting: Kelley Chan; editing:  Bernard Cheung )

Bernard Cheung is the Owner of Ring ‘em Words, which provides professional language services.