Apple is said to have landed the biggest prize in the mobile industry, partnering with China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world, according to alleged company filings.
Both China Unicom and China Telecom, two of the largest mobile carriers in the world, will sell Apple's fifth-generation iPhone as soon as this quarter, with the largest prize — China Mobile — to follow, according to a new report.
Apple revealed Tuesday that its Greater China regional revenue saw a six-fold increase year over year to $3.8 billion, even while company executives admitted that they are barely "scratching the surface" of the Chinese market.
Recent reports that China Telecom will begin offering the iPhone by the end of the year have prompted investment firms to crunch the numbers on the deal's potential revenue opportunity, with one analyst arriving at a figure of $9 billion.
China Telecom plans to begin selling Apple's iPhone by the end of this year, breaking rival China Unicom's exclusive hold on the iPhone market in the country, according to a new report.
A photo purportedly showing an iPhone prototype running on China Mobile's current 3G TD-SCDMA network is being singled out Thursday as the latest piece of evidence to suggest Apple is nearing a "watershed" agreement to bring the touchscreen handset to the world's largest mobile carrier as early as September.
China Mobile could be among the first carriers to offer Apple's next-generation handset when it becomes available later this year, according to a new rumor.
With rumors and evidence of an agreement between China Mobile and Apple continuing to grow, one Wall Street analyst believes the growth of mobile Internet in the nation of over 1 billion "opens up a whole new world" for the iPhone.
Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was reportedly spotted Wednesday at the headquarters of China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world.
China Mobile revealed Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Apple to eventually support the carrier's fourth-generation TD-LTE data network, though it was unable to provide details on when exactly a 4G iPhone will arrive.
Apple had originally planned a 2011 release for an LTE-capable iPhone, but has pushed back its timeline for the device because of production constraints, according to a new report out of the Far East. Meanwhile, sources indicate that China Mobile will likely begin selling Apple's next-generation iPhone later this year.
A new report claims that the fifth-generation iPhone will be a relatively minor update dubbed "4S" that will bring support for both Sprint and T-Mobile networks in the U.S.
A new survey shows that Apple is poised to capitalize on an explosion in sales of 3G smartphones in China, with the iPhone the most popular option, though lower prices could give it the lion's share of sales.
The chairman of carrier China Mobile has indicated that Apple has shown interest in quickly developing a 4G long-term evolution capable high-speed version of its iPhone.
With Monday's release of iOS 4.2.6 for the Verizon CDMA iPhone, one hacker claims to have confirmation that Apple went with Qualcomm for the CDMA baseband. Also, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo has apologized for comments he made about Steve Jobs, and Apple job listings reveal that the iPhone maker continues to look for engineers with LTE experience, possibly in preparation for a 4G LTE iPhone.
The chairman of carrier China Mobile said on Wednesday that Apple has "made it clear" that the company intends to support high-speed long-term evolution 4G wireless technology in a future update to the iPhone.
One Wall Street analyst said Tuesday that global CDMA carriers, including China Telecom and Indian carrier Reliance, are expected to begin carrying the new CDMA iPhone 4 "over time."
The iPhone 4 has been selling at a pace much faster than its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS, serving as evidence that China is catching "Apple fever," according to one analyst.
Apple's hottest products are facing significant demand in China, with the 11-inch MacBook Air, certain versions of the iPad, and the iPhone 4 all facing shortages.
Chinese government regulators have rebuked China Unicom for its new guidelines restricting contracts for Apple's iPhone 4. The guidelines were instituted Wednesday in order to curb rampant scalping of both the iPhone and prepaid microSIM cards.
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AppleInsider Staff
Sam Oliver
Josh Ong
Slash Lane
Katie Marsal
Neil Hughes
