AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Monday announced it will be starting sales of Wi-Fi and cellular versions of the fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini in China this Friday.
The announcement comes nearly one month after China's telecommunications agency granted Apple the appropriate licenses to sell cellular-enabled versions of its two latest tablets in the country.
China saw the relatively quiet launch of Apple's newest iPad and iPad mini in early December, the same month in which the iPhone 5 was released.
Apple's two partner carriers in the region, China Unicom and China Telecom, are expected to be carrying the new iPads at launch, though the nation's largest provider China Mobile will not be selling the devices. In an interview with Chinese media last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed he had met with the world's largest wireless carrier during his recent trip to China last week, but the subject of the talks have yet to be disclosed.
It was reported in November that the iPad was dominating the Chinese tablet marketplace with a 71 percent share of all sales.
Chinese customers will be able to purchase the fourth-generation iPad mini and iPad mini from brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, the Online Apple Store and Apple Authorized Resellers.
Wesley Hilliard
Bon Adamson
Thomas Sibilly
Marko Zivkovic
Andrew Orr
9 Comments
Which means that the analysts will be out in force arguing: 1. Apple's US sales must have fallen if they have extra units available to send to China 2. The price is too high for China and they have to lower the price to $14.99 3. Android is ahead of Apple All of which means: Another AAPL price drop.
Sadly this is true, find a way to spin the news negatively to drive stock price even lower. The reality is this could easily double Apples sales [quote name="jragosta" url="/t/155457/china-to-get-cellular-enabled-4th-gen-ipad-and-ipad-mini-available-this-week#post_2258780"]Which means that the analysts will be out in force arguing: 1. Apple's US sales must have fallen if they have extra units available to send to China 2. The price is too high for China and they have to lower the price to $14.99 3. Android is ahead of Apple All of which means: Another AAPL price drop.[/quote]
I think Apple's performance is becoming more unpredictable as its business is driven by demand in china and analysts have less experience estimating sales there.
On Wednesday or Thursday night, I wouldn't be surprised if a few stories and articles will begin to appear, ahead of this China launch, just in time for the end of the week stock action on Friday. How convenient.
We will have the pleasure of reading about how "sources" on the ground are able to report that only one lonely looking Chinese guy was spotted standing in line outside one of the largest Apple stores in China waiting for these new iPads. We will see headlines that read "Apple launch in China surprisingly calm", "Chinese people no longer like Apple", "Apple on the decline in China", "Chinese people no longer trading their kidneys for iPads" and "Apple launch in China a fiasco?". These articles and stories will be copied by others and quickly spread around the internet, appearing on no fewer than 768 different "news" sites, blogs and other sources of "information".
A few weeks later Apple will release an official statement announcing that they sold a record number of these iPad devices in China, shattering all previous records. Virtually everybody will have forgotten about the bogus stories that came a few weeks before, and everything will be back to normal again, until the next bogus stories about Apple appear, which should take no more than a day or two at the most.
I think Apple's performance is becoming more unpredictable as its business is driven by demand in china and analysts have less experience estimating sales there.
Not at all... Take china out of the equation and Apple still makes more money than everyone else.