China Mobile revs up 4G expansion with long-awaited iPhone pact
Smartphone to be made available to customers of mainland network from next month, with hopes high that deal will boost sales of both firms
China Mobile expects to get more high-end data users, while helping fuel Apple's sales expansion on the mainland, after the two companies forged a multiyear deal to bring the iPhone to the world's largest mobile network from January 17.
The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models will be available for pre-registration on China Mobile's website from tomorrow - Christmas Day - and feature on the operator's new "and!" brand campaign for its 4G services.
China Mobile joins China Unicom and China Telecom as Apple's carrier-partners for the iPhone on the mainland, which is the technology giant's second-biggest market after the United States. At the end of November, the mainland had a total of 1.23 billion mobile subscribers.
Frank Gillett, a vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, yesterday said: "The China Mobile deal boosts Apple's chances of making the iPhone the best-selling 4G smartphone next year."
He pointed out that the size of China Mobile's subscriber base, which was 763.3 million at the end of last month, "makes it likely that Apple will sell millions of additional iPhones in 2014. I've heard estimates as high as 24 million, which would be a big jump in iPhone sales".