As we suspected, the early optimism of Unicom’s iPhone debut in China is being trampled by reality. Lu Yimin, president of China Unicom, said only 5,000 units of the iPhone 3GS were sold during Oct 30-Nov 3. Unimpressive, to say the least.

When the iPhone first launched in the US it sold 270,000 units in two days. When the 3GS came out, it sold 1 million units globally in just three days. Of course, the iPhone is nothing new in China. It’s been available on the gray market since 2007, or via a quick trip to Hong Kong – something that the Chinese who can afford an iPhone often do.

It doesn’t help that Unicom priced its iPhones as much as 26 percent higher than similar models in Hong Kong, prompting concern the strategy will hamper sales in China, according to a report from Bloomberg. The phone costs as much as Rmb6,999 ($1,025), compared with $299 in the U.S. Unicom’s version of the iPhone also lacks the Wi-Fi networking features available in other countries.  If Unicom is able to move 500k units a year, Apple should consider it a win. After all, as a friend of mine says, ‘Unicom never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.’