China Unicom Gets Wi-Fi iPhone Monday

China Unicom will begin selling Apple’s iPhone with Wi-Fi support next week. Come Monday, the carrier will add the Wi-Fi version of the 8GB iPhone 3GS to its handset lineup, something it couldn’t do previously because of a government regulation prohibiting the sale of Wi-Fi devices that don’t support China’s Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure wireless standard. This bodes well for Apple, which has seen sales of the iPhone undermined by Wi-Fi-enabled gray market devices. With a Wi-Fi iPhone available for purchase through regular channels, sales through China Unicom could ramp up–-a boon for Apple, which has targeted China as its next major geographic growth opportunity.