COMPUTER-CHINA

Tis offer might be an only-in-France type of deal, assuming that it's even true. European apple iPhone sales have not been as strong as U.S. sales, and Apple's partners might be trying additional demand-goosing methods that might not be available to stateside owners.

Perhaps this time around, Apple and its carrier partners are hoping to prevent similar bellyaching from current apple iPhone owners who might suddenly realize in late June that their apple iPhone isn't as cool as it used to be.

Ars Technica spotted a report from French Web site PC Inpact that Orange has been calling apple iPhone owners in France and offering them an upgrade path to the new model.

It would be somewhat surprising if Orange were choosing to publicly discuss a next-generation apple iPhone with its customers, but if true, it could shed light on how Apple plans to hit its apple iPhone targets for 2008. PC Inpact says Orange customers are being given two options: they can return their current apple iPhone and pay 50 euros for the new version, or they can keep their current version and buy a new one at a "heavily subsidized" price, presumably with a fresh contract attached.

If Apple and its partners can get even half of the estimated 5 million apple iPhone owners to upgrade to the new model, it will be much easier for the company to hit its 2008 goal of 10 million shipments. Sales are expected to increase based on the wider distribution of the apple iPhone in the coming weeks around the world, as well as those who were holding out for a faster model. Inducing as many current owners to upgrade as possible would provide a nice boost.

Anyone with a pulse and even a passing interest in consumer electronics knows that the 3G apple iPhone is perhaps weeks away from making its debut, probably at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9. Those with longer memories will recall the outcry over Apple's decision to cut the price of the apple iPhone by $200 in September, forcing the company to issue $100 credits to apple iPhone early adopters to stem the criticism.

The carrier also reportedly intends to open its TD-SCDMA retail sales in the pilot cities to manufacturers Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. , Samsung, LG, and ZTE, allowing them to sell mobile phones in its outlets. A deal with Yulong will have it stocking Yulong handsets in 20 percent of its outlets by the end of this month and 50 percent by the end of June.

The announcement comes as the Chinese government has finally unveiled its long-awaited plans to reorganize the country’s operators before issuing 3G licenses. (See Chinese To Get 3G – At Last!)

Chinese Mobile, which will merge with Chinese TieTong Telecommunications Corp. (formerly Chinese Railcom) under the restructuring, is expected to lead the deployment of Chinese’s homegrown 3G technology.

Chinese Mobile has been trialing TD-SCDMA in eight cities, including Beijing, since April 1 and will continue the pilot until July. It’s invested 14.2 billion yuan renminbi (US$2.04 billion) in the technology so far.

This second round is larger than the first phase at the beginning of the year, when the carrier bought 60,000 handsets and 15,000 data cards for the trial from six suppliers: ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063 - message board; Hong Kong: 0763), Lenovo Group Ltd. , LG Electronics Inc. (London: LGLD - message board; Korea: 6657.KS) , Samsung Corp. , Amoi Electronics, and Datang Telecom Technology Co. Ltd.

According to Xinhua Finance, the tender requires bidders to have licenses for TD-SCDMA handset production from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), which have been awarded to around 30 manufacturers.

Chinese Mobile Communications Corp. has launched the second phase of a tender for TD-SCDMA terminals, this time for 100,000 handsets and data cards.