China Unicom Research Vice President, Huang Wenliang, revealed yesterday at the Macworld Conference that they have launched an Institute for R&D for iOS products. Some projects will be just experiments and some will go to market. 6 of the most recent developments have or will soon hit the App Store.

One radical feature to be released is Woxin 1.0, a piece of downloadable software the gives iPad or iPod Touch devices to make calls. If this is the case, what is really the difference between an iPhone of an iPod Touch that can make calls? Will this cannabalize sales of iPhones because iPod Touches are cheaper? Perhaps they don’t care as long as it drives them more traffic and users.

Huang Wenliang said “we hope to develop more outstanding APP application, and further stimulate the use of user traffic.”

Jason Lim

Jason is an Australian born Chinese living in Beijing, specializing in entrepreneurship, start-ups and the investment eco-system in China, especially in the tech and social area.

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3 Comments

  1. I don’t see how Apple would be fine with this. Is Unicom developing this without Apple’s approval?

    1. I think Unicom is trying to adapt to the trend of more 3G data consumption. Perhaps Apple see’s this as a new way to sell more iPads. 

  2. Nice. I’ve been carrying around a giant iPhone all this time. Look forward to testing it out if it makes it past app police.

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