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For years Apple has been trying to make a deal with China Unicom to carry the Iphone. Unfortunately for China, neither companies have reached an agreement yet. Even though China Unicom has the largest customer based with 688 million people, Apple Iphones are not available with their services. I was surprise since the Iphone is assemble in China.

To know that 688 million people might have access to the iPhone in the next few months is probably going to boost their stock; however, it will have to be seen if they can keep up with demand, since Apple is already struggling to do so; I won't be receiving my iPhone for another 4 weeks or so.

It seems as if the only concern Apple had was the task of meeting the consumer demand for a particular product, then Apple would surely not have too much to worry about. Apple chose not to manufacture iPhones in America because we are no longer efficient manufacturers in most instances (including the iPhone). China manufactures all types of products for Americans. Now I wonder how much China will need us when they begin to manufacture for their own enormous population. Also, I wonder if we would be ready to manufacture for ourselves if that were to happen.

The iPhone 5 was released recently, which led to many workers in China working extreme overtime. Some had to go a month or more without a day off. Add that to the already poor working conditions in some of Foxconn's factories and you get a riot. It is a shame that these workers have so few rights, especially since they can't even use these phones, which was also highlighted in one of the articles posted by John Trang. The site this article came from, phys.org, is a great site that I've visited for years for news related to a variety of sciences and technologies. Here are a few articles related to changes in the global oceans like the ones discussed in Seasick: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-slippery-slope-slime-overgrown-algae.html http://phys.org/news/2012-09-ocean-acidification-scientists.html

Well now I know why my Iphone is still on back order. Seriously though the brawl in China shows that once people are push to their limits they will revolt. Like Matt stated poor working conditions and high stress will lead to a riot. This should show the world how serious horrible working conditions are in China. In addition to China the brawl also affected the US. Joe McDonald of AP Business wrote "On Monday, Apple said it sold 5 million units of the new iPhone 5 in the first three days, less than analysts had expected. Its stock fell 1.4 percent to $690.50 in midday trading." The amount of Iphone does not match the amount of people that preordered the new Iphone. Zach Epstein of BGR news stated in his article "Verizon ran out of launch-day stock late Friday morning, and AT&T sold out of its preliminary iPhone 5 inventory just before 1:00 p.m. EDT on Friday." http://news.yahoo.com/preorders-disappointing-iphone-5-sell-less-hour-apple-121522743.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CZAimdQ9loAlOrQtDMD http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Foxconn-factory-in-China-shaken-by-worker-violence-3888296.php

This article predicts that China's Unicom customers will be able to purchase and use Iphones in 2013. The only issue right now is that the prices Apple is offering China is "too high". While a guy name Ramachandran said that apple should give China some sweeteners or incentives to work together. Which doesn't make sense to me because if China wants to be a efficient nation, why not add as many smart phones as you can? Apple is one of the most prospering companies in the world. The logical thing to do is work with apple before they decide to up the price.

Part of the reason apple would add incentives is because there ARE many smart phones available in China, but non-pirated apple products are under-represented. When apple set up their flagship store in Beijing they regulated people to one phone per person because there were so many problems with people trying to buy multiple phones and then re-sell them for a profit.