China Unicom will focus its smartphone business on models other than iPhone in 2011 to reduce the unfavorable influence on its overall business operation due to heavy reliance on iPhone models, China-based ifeng.com cited company president Lu Yimin as indicating during 2011 Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona, Spain.

The introduction of iPhone models has added one million contract-bundled subscribers with relatively high monthly ARPU (average revenues per user), with a subscriber generating monthly EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization) of CNY260 (US$39) on average, Lu indicated. However, increasing dependence on iPhone will decrease China Unicom's flexibility in 3G operation, Lu pointed out. In addition, the supply of iPhones is not steadily enough, Lu noted.

Thus, China Unicom's smartphone business operation will concentrate on non-iPhone models, including the introduction of RIM BlackBerry models in the first half of 2011 and hiked subsidies for Android and Windows Phone 7 models, Lu pointed out.

With 14.06 million 3G subscribers as of the end of 2010, China Unicom aims to increase the number to at least 30 million at the end of 2011, Lu indicated.