China Unicom officially launched sales last week of the Chinese editions of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, making this the first legal sales of the Apple devices. iPhones have existed in China since their release in the states, but on the black and grey markets.

According to Reuters, only 5000 Unicom-powered iPhone subscribers have signed up since the launch, well below the optimistic estimates for the world’s most populous country. In a conversation with Reuters, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster called the figures a “disappointment,” and said he had predicated 30,000 units might be sold.
“We believe that eventually China will emerge as a major market for iPhone sales but it could take a year or two to gain meaningful unit traction as it did in the U.S.,” Munster wrote in a research paper.

According to reports from the Christian Science Monitor, “The 8-gig Unicom iPhone 3G went on sale for 5,880 yuan, or $861; the 32-gig model retails for the equivalent of more than $1,000. The prices may look high to US consumers, but they’re in line – if on the upper end of the spectrum – in terms of what Chinese customers might expect to pay. The real issue here may be Wi-Fi access, which the Chinese iPhone doesn’t have.”