iPhone 6 gets green light for mainland sales - officially
Parallel traders to feel the squeeze after US tech giant finally gets the needed certificates
Apple's iPhone 6 and the slightly bigger iPhone 6 Plus have finally received approval to be sold on the mainland and will be available from October 17, the US-based technology giant said yesterday.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced earlier on its website that the new smartphone models had passed tests and been issued a telecoms network access licence, but only after the company had given assurances about users' privacy and security.
The price of a 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 will be 5,288 yuan (HK$6,670) and the iPhone 6 Plus with the same storage will sell for 6,088 yuan.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook said both models would be sold using "all three carriers" at launch, referring to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, and would have access to high-speed, fourth-generation telecommunications networks.
The new models are on sale in 26 countries and regions across the world, including Hong Kong, but the mainland, the company's second largest market, was absent from the first and second waves of the launch.
Apple sold a record 10 million of the iPhone 6 models in the first weekend after their launch.