China’s biggest mobile carrier looks set to sell Apple’s iPhone, hugely increasing the California-based company’s distribution in the world’s largest smartphone market, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Apple is preparing to ship iPhones to China Mobile, in a successful conclusion to years of negotiations with the Chinese wireless giant which has some 700 million subscribers, the Journal reported on its website.
The report comes as Apple prepares an event at its headquarters next week where it is expected to unveil two new iPhones, including a cheaper version.
The Journal cited unidentified people with knowledge of the deal as saying that Apple had asked manufacturing partner Foxconn to add China Mobile to its list of carriers to receive a low-cost iPhone.
If confirmed it would finally give Apple access to one of the world’s biggest major wireless carriers which does not offer the company’s smartphones.
It comes as Apple’s sales in China slipped 14 per cent from a year ago in the third quarter to US$4.6 billion.