The launch of the iPhone in China could be instrumental to the growth of smartphones in the entire world, according to an estimate by iSuppli. The threat of an officially sanctioned iPhone on China Unicom is believed to be a "starting gun" for China and has already spurred the government-backed carrier China Mobile to introduce its rival Ophone platform, which combines touchscreen phones with a custom Android operating system that shows strong influences from the iPhone. The competition is expected to spike Chinese smartphone sales by 42.5 percent in 2010 to 30.2 mi
