The Associated Press reports that China Unicom is denying that it has reached an agreement with Apple to purchase five million iPhones for release in China.
"Talks between us and Apple have been going on for some time, but no agreement has been reached yet," said Unicom spokesman Yi Difei. "There are all kinds of possibilities.There is no particular timetable for the talks."
Reports of the agreement apparently originated from Yu Zhaonan, a sales manager for China Unicom's subsidiary in Guangdong Province, who was unavailable for comment on the company spokesman's denial. A spokesman for Unicom Guangdong, however, claimed to have no knowledge of an agreement and referred additional questions to China Unicom's central offices.