The iPhone4 is out in China, and this time it’s on fire. As Fortune writes, the crippled iPhone 3 (no wifi) sold only a few thousand units, while there are pre-orders for 200,000 this time and huge lines.

iPhone4 Line in China

Almost every tech startup I see in the U.S. uses Macs, but in China I only saw one (plus some iPads). When I asked about this, most people answered that Apple products are much better, but that PCs are so much cheaper. They said it with envy. My bet is that, given the pace of change in China, I’m going to see a lot of Macs when I go back in November. Despite crazy prices, the Chinese will pay up for foreign brands. Today’s lines are an amazing leading indicator in what will be the second biggest market for Apple.

I’ll be off to China again in a couple of months, and hope to take the train to Tianjin. Thomas Friedman is there now for the World Economic Forum, and his Op Ed in the NYT yesterday captured, almost exactly, my feelings about the comparison of the two countries’ current economic, cultural, and political states.

Wall Street Journal covers Kai-Fu Lee’s Innovation Works’ launch of Tapas and Wonderpod.

My friend Adrienne wrote a book, relevant to this series of posts, which is out for the Kindle and will be released as a real book on 9/11/2010 (the date isn’t accidental).