Apple has signed a deal to sell iPhones on the world's largest mobile phone network, China Mobile, in a move that could dramatically expand its sales, according to reports.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the long-expected tieup will be unveiled in two weeks' time and will for the first time make the American company's phones available on the gigantic network, which has 760 million subscribers, of whom 176 million have 3G connectivity.
But the iPhone will initially only be sold for 4G/LTE connectivity, the reports suggest, as part of the unveiling by the mobile carrier of its new faster connections on 18 December. The Chinese government issued 4G licences this week, and China Mobile is reckoned to be poised to take a lead there over its two smaller rivals, China Telecom and China Unicom, who together have half as many subscribers as the giant company.
The iPhone 5C and 5S, released in September, include models with are compatible with China Mobile's TD-LTE system which is it rolling out across China.
Vast customer base
Even so the move would give Apple a potential customer base three times bigger than the entire US mobile population. That could have a dramatic effect on its handset sales, whose share of the overall smartphone market has fallen as that business has grown – though it has still managed to increase sales year-on-year.
Financial analysts reckon that Apple could sell between 10m and 17m extra iPhones in the first year of a deal with China Mobile, generating nearly $9bn in extra revenue. In the past four quarters it sold 150m iPhones.
China is a key market for Apple because its buyers value premium western brands, and are also eager updaters of handsets: on average, owners replace their smartphones every 13 months, though the replacement cycle is longer on China Mobile. In Apple's most recent financial quarter, revenues from Greater China totalled $5.7bn, or 15% of its total.
Compatibility issues
China Telecom and China Unicom already sell 3G-compatible versions of the iPhone. But Apple's handset has not officially been available on China Mobile because the two companies had so far been unable to agree a revenue-sharing deal on handset, data and app sales, and because China Mobile uses its own version of 3G which is incompatible with those deployed elsewhere.
Apple has never made an iPhone that is compatible with China Mobile's 3G services - but even so there are an estimated 42m iPhone users on its network, using slower 2G and EDGE services. They represent an estimated 80% of iPhone users in China.
Apple declined to comment on the report. China Mobile said in a statement that talks on cooperation were ongoing and there was "nothing to disclose".
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via apple - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFzYbNo_rInLTUKXYhprrSODqp8Ng&url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/05/apple-iphone-china-mobile-worlds-biggest-carrier
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