That's an impressive number considering Apple's yet to bring its smartphone to the world's most populous country, with a mobile phone market composed of 565-million users. And it can only help Apple when it finally does strike a deal with a carrier to take the iPhone to China.

Of those respondents interested in purchasing an iPhone, more females cited "trendiness" and "design" and males "utility" as the chief reason for wanting to do so. Another positive for Apple is the foothold it’s gained in China through the large number of iPod owners, 88 percent of whom would consider buying an iPhone.

Apple's challenge, according to PearlResearch, is getting beyond this core group of consumers, which may be tough. The iPhone's high-price tag of $500 and Apple's newness to the mobile phone market are the two most cited reasons for a lack of interest the iPhone on the part of the Chinese public.

And, in a market where most tend not to use their mobile handsets for surfing the Web because of the high cost of doing so, the iPhone's Internet capabilities - an important selling point elsewhere - isn't that important to Chinese consumers.

Most of those iPhones were likely unlocked to work on carrier networks, either one at a time by individuals for personal use or in large quanteties for shippment overseas—mostly to markets (all of Asia, for instance) where the iPhone isn't available yet.

An analysis of Apple and AT&T's sales numbers for last year revealed that the companies coul not account for more than 1 in 4 iPhones. That's a million units out of the 4 million Apple shipped in 2007.

In February, The New York Times reported on how thousands of iPhones, built and shipped out of China in the first place, have been smuggled back into the country and onto the grey marktet by the thousands—for the most part by Chinese flight attendants and members of tourist groups who get about $30 per iPhone successfully delivered.

Early in 2008, talks between Apple and China Mobile, the larest mobile operator in the world, to carry the iPhone reportedly broke down due to Apple's request for a piece the service revenue pie.

Until the iPhone becomes officially available in areas like China, expect it to continue to find a home in those markets unofficially.