Andre Yoskowitz
6 Sep 2013 22:19
According to the WSJ, Apple is preparing to ship cheaper iPhones to China Mobile, the largest carrier on the planet.
The companies have been negotiating for over three years, with talks intensifying in recent months as China has become Apple's third largest market in terms of sales.
China Mobile has 700 million subscribers, well ahead of European carrier Vodafone's 450 million subscribers and over six times more than the U.S.'s largest carrier, Verizon, at 115 million subscribers.
Apple is expected to launch new iPhones at an event on September 10th, and there is a separate Chinese event set for the next day.
China Mobile would not be getting the new iPhone 5S, however, but they will get the alleged new iPhone 5C, a lower-cost plastic version of the year-old iPhone 5. China Mobile's 3G network, which uses proprietary tech, is generally considered to be unreliable, and the radio was expensive for Apple to add, say sources. This seems to have been a hurdle that has been jumped, however.
Apple, with just 5 percent share in China, have huge opportunities for growth, with an estimated 350 million smartphone units expected to be shipped in China this year. That figure is double that of the U.S.