Apple's latest iPhone to go on sale in China

SHANGAI, CHINA: China Unicom said it will launch Apple's latest iPhone in China on Saturday, as it attempts to claw back market share with a rollout of the U.S. company's popular smartphones.

The iPhone 4 will be sold through China Unicom on two-year phone contracts and also through Apple retail stores in China, the world's largest mobile phone market with more than 790 million subscribers.

China Unicom, the sole telecom distributor of Apple's iPhone in the country, had seen slow sales for the handset because of high subscription fees and stiff competition from lower priced Android handsets.

Apple opened its second flagship store in China in July and is on track to have 25 retail outlets in the country by the end of next year. Apple executives said in April that they saw the Chinese market as a major growth opportunity.