China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU, 0762.HK) said Sunday its supply of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone 4 handsets is currently insufficient to meet user demand but that it will boost its stock as quickly as possible.

China Unicom had taken over 200,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders by early Saturday, the day sales started, and over 40,000 buyers received the phone and a bundled mobile service plan that day, the network operator said in a statement. It did not give details on its handset supply.

Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The U.S. company also started selling the iPhone 4 at its retail stores in China on Saturday.

The latest version of Apple's popular smartphone was widely awaited in China and could help China Unicom attract more users to its third-generation mobile services, which are more expensive but offer faster data speeds. China Unicom is competing with rivals China Mobile Ltd. (CHL, 0941.HK) and China Telecom Corp. (CHA, 0728.HK) to build its 3G subscriber base.

-By Owen Fletcher, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610-8400-7702; owen.fletcher@dowjones.com
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