China Unicom, the country's leading mobile telecommunications service provider, announced June 9 that the company hadn't developed a detailed timetable to introduce Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4.

China Unicom's Deputy General Manager Li Gang confirmed this.

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said June 8 that iPhone 4 will be released simultaneously in the United States, France, Germany, UK and Japan this month. Apple will start accepting orders June 15.

The iPhone 4 offers two colours – black and white. The 16 GB and 32 GB versions cost US$199 and US$299 respectively.

"China Unicom and Apple are assessing the feasibility of introducing iPhone 4 into the Chinese market," Li Gang said. "Apple has contracted sales channels worldwide, and China Unicom will observe their performance before finalizing a detailed introduction plan."

Apple said at Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 that iPhone 4 will be available in 88 countries and regions by September of this year. Business insiders think Apple will include China in that group.

China Unicom, which is already in cooperation with Apple on previous models of iPhone, said it didn't have a detailed plan to introduce iPhone 4, nor would it at once modify the contracted price for older iPhones.