China: New iPad going on sale in April. Tim Cook talks with government officials cleared the way.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

China: New iPad going on sale in April. Tim Cook talks  with government officials cleared the way.

According to zdnetasia and allthingsd Tim Cook recent visit to China  helped to clear the way for sales of the new iPad after he talked with the goverment officials to address issues pertaining to the iPad trademark dispute.

As results of this talks, the China Quality Certification Center (CQCC) recently granted the iPad with the compulsory certification necessary for Apple to sell it in China.

Apple has not yet announced a formal launch date for the iPad in China, but the device could debut on shelves as early as April, the report said.

The latest iPad, unveiled by Apple earlier this month, is already available in some Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Singapore and Hong Kong were previously not among the first countries to sell the iPad 2 device when it was launched, and analysts observed that the inclusion of more Asian countries is a sign of the region's growing significance to Apple.

China: No 4G licenses for another two to three years.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

China: No 4G licenses  for another two to three years.

China likely to wait at least another two years before issuing 4G licenses, so that it has more time to build more base stations, and allow vendors to develop handsets for the high-speed network, according to reports.

In PCWorld's report last Friday, Miao Wei, head of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the country currently had 220,000 TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) base stations, but planned to expand the number to a total of 400,000 before offering 4G licenses.

The news site noted that the China was currently holding large-scale 4G trials using LTE TDD (Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex) technology, also known as TD-LTE.

Miao was quoted saying that China planned to roll out LTE TDD by upgrading existing base stations that use the 3G TD-SCDMA standard, which could take about three years time.

He added that the government would also need to encourage handset and chip vendors to support LTE TDD phones, which he cited as a barrier that had been holding back China's 4G development.

According to PCWord, China is estimated to be close to hitting one billion mobile phone users, but the country's 3G networks--which went online in 2009--accounted for only 135 million users.

China: iPad trademark owner seeks 1 billion + compensation from Apple.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

A Chinese firm called Proview Technology has served Apple with a legal notice for the infringement of the iPad trademark that it holds in China. Proview apparently held the trademark name on the iPad back in 2000, long before Apple introduced its tablet into the market.

An interesting twist is that Apple was able to get access to the trademark for use in the UK. Fox News reported that Proview Taiwan had sold the global trademark to a separate company in the UK who then transferred the trademark to Apple. The iPad name in China though was not part of the sale to the UK firm, and Proview still holds the rights for the name.

A court in China has ruled that Proview is the legal owner of the trademark in China , and hence Apple has violated the trademark by selling iPads in China with the same name. Proview is seeking more than $1 billion in compensation from Apple in the trademark infringement suit.

Apple cuts iPad prices in China

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Price of entry-level iPad reduced by around 25% to US$440.

Apple Inc. cut prices for its original iPad tablet computers in China, lowering the starting price to CNY2,888 (US$440) from CNY3,988 for a 16-gigabyte model without third-generation connectivity, its website showed.

Apple made the change after it announced on Wednesday a new version of the device, the iPad 2, which will start at US$499, a company spokeswoman said.

Apple in China lowered prices for a 32-gigabyte version to CNY3,688 from CNY4,788, and for a 64-gigabyte version to CNY4,488 from CNY5,588.

Apple doesn't currently sell the 3G version of the iPad in China.