China Unicom has announced the opening of its official iPhone specialty store on Taobao.com.

Prior to this, China Unicom edition iPhone handsets were only available in a few electronics and mobile phone chain stores as well as on China Unicom's official website.

At present, China Unicom's iPhone store on Taobao.com sells three iPhone products, including iPhone 3GS 32GB at the price of CNY6,999; iPhone 3GS 16GB at the price of CNY5,880; and iPhone 3G 8GB at the price of 4,999. All iPhone handsets will be activated before shipment.

In addition, consumers who buy the iPhone handsets from this online store before the end of November 2009 will gain an iPod Shuffle 4G player with the market price of CNY599 for free.

According to information revealed by China Unicom, over 5,000 China Unicom edition iPhone handsets have been sold in China by November 3, 2009. The company plans to evaluate the sales result and make corresponding adjustments on its marketing strategy.