With China's second-biggest mobile carrier, China Unicom, apparently set to begin its sales of the newest Apple iPhone - the iPhone 5 - later this year, the carrier is attempting to allure high-end users to increase its profits; and is aiming at a figure of 100 million 3G users by the 2012-end.

The sales of iPhones have already given a notable boost to the number of 3G users for China Unicom (Hong Kong), which was the first Chinese mobile carrier to begin offering the iPhone in 2009, but its exclusivity for the handset ended this year when Apple signed a contract with China Telecom as well.

Thanks to its sales of the iPhones, the 3G users' figures have been witnessing a steady rise for China Unicom. Going by the statistics shared by the carrier, the number of 3G users had touched 66.9 million in the first nine months of this year; thereby accounting for approximately 30 percent of the carrier's total subscribers.

With China Unicom having set a rather ambitious target of an increase to 100 million 3G users by the end of the year, the carrier's chairman Chang Xiaobing recently said about the availability of iPhone 5: "The iPhone 5 is currently being tested by the authorities, and we'll begin selling it once it has been approved."