Apple (AAPL) China News Bad For RIM (RIMM)

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) cellular carrier for the iPhone in China, China Unicom (NYSE:CHU), said that it sold only 100,000 of the handsets in the 40 days after they went on sales. iPhoneAsia first reported the numbers.

There are a litany of excuses for the iPhone’s early sales failure. The most realistic is that the device does not have Wi Fi capacity. A number of “unlocked” iPhones were sold in China before Unicom got into the business which may also be a reason for the slow sales pace. Some estimate put the number of “unlocked” iPhones in circulation in China at above two million.

The tepid reception to the iPhone is particularly bad news for RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM), the maker of the Blackberry. RIM recently announced a sales venture with Legend, the parent of Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo. RIM also said it would begin to sell the Blackberry to consumers through China Telecom.

The Blackberry does not have the name recognition in China that the iPhone does. This is not unusual because of the preeminence of the Apple brand in almost every country in the world. And, if Apple’s iPhone sales are in trouble in China, it is simple deduction to assume that RIM will have an even harder time.

Douglas A. McIntyre