Only one week after Apple, Inc. introduced the iPhone (News - Alert) to Hong Kong users, China Unicom, the country’s second-biggest mobile-phone company, reported that it already has signed up 5,000 users. 

 

The prices of the handset are not expensive, President Lu Yimin told reporters after a Unicom shareholders meeting in Hong Kong Wednesday.

 

According to reports, Unicom priced its iPhones 26 percent higher than similar models in Hong Kong. This reportedly prompted concern the strategy will hamper sales in China, where more than 700 million people subscribe to wireless services.

 

Mobile data is huge in Asia, where consumers used phones for SMS text messages and Web browsing much sooner than they did in the United States. Still, price continues to be a factor in choosing phones: It is estimated by CLSA Ltd. that Apple (News - Alert) may sell 460,000 smartphones annually through its Chinese partner, fewer than the number shipped through unauthorized dealers in the Asian country each year.

 

Meanwhile, in the United States and Western Europe, nearly one in five smartphone users rely on their cell to access the Internet at least once a week, according to a new study released this week. 

In “Smartphone Owners Lead Rise in Mobile Internet Usage,” Strategy Analytics (News - Alert) projects that in 2013, smartphones will account for 60 percent of all mobile Internet users in the United States.

“Mobile Internet usage is being driven by smartphone owners -- in particular, Apple iPhone owners. Three-quarters of iPhone owners use the Internet on their phone every day,” said Paul Brown, senior user experience analyst at Strategy Analytics.

“Mobile Internet browsing time is also on the rise,” said analyst Christopher Dodge. Compared to 2008, respondents spend a greater proportion of their time visiting non-operator portals, social network sites and tools and utilities on their mobile phone.”