iPhone 6年底前入華希望不大

China’s Apple fans aren’t feeling lucky anymore.

中國的“果粉”這次可能不會像上次那樣走運了。

The last time a new iPhone was released, last September with the iPhone 5S, Apple coordinated its release so that Beijing customers and New York customers could buy their gadgets at the same time. Before then, Mainland China fans had to wait months to get their hands on iPhones already available in the U.S. and Europe.

去年9月，上一款iPhone發佈的時候，在蘋果公司的協調下，北京的消費者得以與紐約的消費者同時在第一時間購買到iPhone 5S。在那之前，往往是iPhone已經在美國和歐洲發佈了幾個月了，中國大陸的果粉才能盼到屬於他們自己的iPhone。

For reasons that aren’t clear just yet, that’s not the case with the iPhone 6. Apple said the new generation iPhone wouldn’t go on sale in China on the same date —this Friday, Sept. 19— as the U.S. and nine other regions.

這次iPhone 6的首發地也沒有中國大陸，具體原因尚不清楚。蘋果只是表示，新一代iPhone將於9月19日在美國和其他9個地區同步首發，中國大陸未在此列。

China’s big carriers aren’t saying much publicly, but recent calls to their stores and service reps indicate they won’t be getting the iPhone 6 until the end of the year. A China Mobile employee said she couldn’t say anything on the timing because Apple hadn’t yet decided when it would release the iPhone in China. (Apple not making a decision was a common refrain in the Chinese press this week.) Meanwhile, a rep at China Unicom, the country’s second largest carrier, said the iPhone 6 would likely be available near the end of this year.

中國的三大運營商並沒有公開說得太多，不過最近通過電話訪問三大運營商的門店和服務代表得知，他們恐怕到年底前都無法獲得iPhone 6。中國移動（China Mobile）的一名員工表示，她沒法對iPhone 6的上市時間做任何表態，因爲蘋果還沒有決定什麼時候在中國發布iPhone 6。（在本週的中國媒體上，“蘋果未做出決定”是一句非常普遍的理由。）同時中國第二大運營商中國聯通（China Unicom）的一名代表也表示，iPhone 6可能要到將近年底才能上市。

While Apple hasn’t released a date when the iPhone 6 will finally be available in China, its biggest growth market and third largest market total, that’s likely not by choice. A Shanghai business paper quoting a source saying Apple hasn’t received a network license for the new iPhone from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Last year, as noted by Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, the iPhone 5S and 5C were granted network access even before Apple formally launched the products.

儘管蘋果尚未就iPhone 6何時才能正式登陸中國表態，不過中國作爲蘋果的全球第三大市場和增長最快的市場，iPhone 6遲遲不能在華上市似乎也不是蘋果願意看到的結果。上海的一份商務報紙引述消息人士的話稱，蘋果至今尚未獲得中國工信部的入網許可證。據長江商學院（Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business）指出，去年iPhone 5S和iPhone 5C早在正式發佈之前，就獲得了工信部的入網許可證。

There is precedent. The iPhone 4 was released in China three months after it became available in the U.S. The iPhone 5 was also released three months later in Mainland China. The reasons behind those delays are less clear. For the iPhone 5, Apple sold it as soon as it received approval from China’s regulators in 2012. It looks like regulators are again slowing the process.

iPhone在中國遲遲不上市也是有先例的。比如iPhone 4就是在美國上市了三個月後，纔在中國發布的。iPhone 5也是晚於美國上市三個月。這些機型推遲發佈的理由我們並不清楚。對於iPhone 5來說，2012年它通過中國監管機構的批准之後，蘋果就立即啓動了上市銷售。看來這次又是監管機構拖了上市的後腿。

China’s tens of millions of social media users are quick to mock: iPhones may be built in China, but rarely are they sold here first.

中國幾千萬社交媒體用戶迅速進入吐槽狀態：有網友表示，iPhone雖然可能是在中國組裝的，但是它們很少在這兒先開賣。