Reuters reports that China Unicom may officially announce a deal to bring the iPhone to China as soon as tomorrow. While the information comes from an anonymous analyst citing other unnamed sources, a China Unicom spokeswoman did confirm that the iPhone will be a topic of discussion at a media briefing scheduled for tomorrow to discuss company earnings.
A China Unicom spokeswoman said the iPhone would undoubtedly be discussed on Friday when Unicom is set to hold a media briefing to discuss its results for the first half of 2009, but she did not say whether an agreement would be announced.
Rumors of an impending deal between Apple and China Unicom have been circulating for some time, but have heated up this month following reports that Apple executive Steve Joswiak and other company representatives were scheduled to travel to Beijing to meet with China Unicom representatives. A report several weeks ago based on statements from a China Unicom subsidiary sales manager claimed that a deal had finally been struck to bring 5 million China-specific iPhones lacking Wi-Fi connectivity to the country, but the claim was quickly denied by company officials in Beijing.