Apple iPhone Gets “Lukewarm” China Reception, WSJ Says

Kind of a curious story in this morning’s Wall Street Journal about the launch of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone with China Unicom (CHU) in mainland China.

The story asserts in the headline that the phone has received a “lukewarm” reception in China. The piece said a “boisterious crowd” turned out for a launch event in Beijing, but that there is “no sign of the sort of sellout reception that greeted the smart phone as its introduction in other countries.”

The piece noted that “hundreds of people braved cold and rain” to attend a Friday launch event thrown by China Unicom, but that “the crowd seemed subdued” compared to the “thousands who turned up at stores” when the phone arrived in the U.S. and Japan.” The piece noted that the phones were in stock in stores around Beijing as of Sunday night.

The story said that a manager at a China Unicom store in Beijing said Sunday that his store sold ten iPhones on Saturday but only one on Sunday. Also noted in the piece: the large number of gray market iPhones - an estimated 2 million - already in service in China, as well as the relatively high prices for the phones, $730 to $1,020 before discounts. The piece also noted that some people are unhappy that the phones are not capable of using WiFi, an adjustment that was required under the country’s laws.

What the story totally lacks, of course, is any hard data. For that, we’ll have to wait.

Neither Apple nor China Unicom have commented on the launch.