Apple iPhone falls flat in China on opening weekend: Lost in translation?

It's a concept that Apple (AAPL) is not that familiar with of late: failure. China Unicom, the service carrier that launched Apple's iPhone in China last week, reported it had signed up an anemic 5,000 new users over the weekend, a marked departure for a product that has enjoyed blockbuster launches in the United States.

Broadpoint AMTech analyst Brain Marshall wondered whether there might have been a translation error, but both Bloomberg and Reuters were reporting the same numbers from China Unicom.

"If it's true, it's pretty disappointing," Marshall told DailyFinance. "I would have expected a bigger splash over the weekend."