Both Apple and China Mobile have reached an agreement when it comes to the iPhone 5s and 5c launch that will use China Mobile’s 4G and 3G networks next year – January 17, 2014, to be precise.
In a press release, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, wrote, “China is an extremely important market for Apple and our partnership with China Mobile presents us the opportunity to bring iPhone to the customers of the world’s largest network.”
Just as the Wall Street Journal had reported of a deal between the two in December, it was clear that both parties had been in negotiations since 2011, with China Mobile’s customer base spanning more than 760 million customers being an excellent place to begin with.
What is noteworthy is that a Canalys report released earlier stated that almost 39% of the global smartphone market is accounted for by users in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
And which is why a deal, as predicted by William Power, the R.W Baird analyst, would result in almost 12.5 to 30 million iPhone sales.
Yet what gave away Apple’s desire to expand its reach to China was the announcement that for the very first time, the iPad Air would be available in the country on its launch day.
While little detail is known about the pricing of the phones themselves, there’s no doubt that the deal will boost the development of China’s 4G/TD-LTE technology that is homegrown.
While pre-registration begins on December 25, the phones will be available on – and as mentioned earlier – at the beginning of next year.