iPhone Wi-Fi Finally Coming to China?

Have the iPhone on your shopping lost, but holding out because of its lack of Wi-Fi on the local market? Good news from the Wall Street Journal. Shortly after the opening of Apple’s second China store in Shanghai, the iPhone received a license from the Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center approving the use of its Wi-Fi capability and could soon enter the market with China Unicom, according to the WSJ.

The article says that it is likely that only the 3G or 3Gs phones would be released with wi-fi in China, as only the older generation is pictured in a photo released on the Certification Center’s website. The wi-fi capable iPhone has already been on sale in China’s grey market, but as China Unicom subsidizes the cost of official phones, consumers will likely be able to purchase it at a lower cost.

This could be a sign of good things to come for Apple in the Chinese market. The iPhone has received lackluster sales numbers since its introduction to China late last year, partly due to the lack of wi-fi capability. But according to an article recently published by the New York Times, the company is making an aggressive push into the country.

Charles Wolf, who follows apple for Needham & Company told the New York Times, “Apple plans a major invasion of China over the next 18 months to two years. To date, Apple has not been a force in China. But it will be.”

Hopefully this is also means an easier road into the Chinese market for the iPad and the iPhone 4, which according to reports late last month, are to make their debut sometime in September.