Reports from
the Wall Street Journal have indicated that Apple has concluded a deal with
China Mobile to bring iPhone 5S and 5C to the world’s largest
telecommunications company for the first time.
This report
is coming out after China’s top three carriers recently received licenses from
the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to start operating 4G networks.
There has been a previous report that the new iPhones will be compatible with
China Mobile’s network.
China Mobile
which has a customer base of about 740 million is the last to sign a deal with
Apple as the smaller networks are already on board.
This move is
expected to boost Apple’s sales in China, which is Apple’s third largest market.
Research firm Trefis has predicted that this deal could see Apple sell an
additional 20 million iPhones in 2014 which will represent a 17% increase from
this year.
This is a
critical time for Apple in the Chinese market as it is losing ground on Samsung
and other android smartphone manufacturers.
The Wall
Street Journal further claimed that according to its unnamed source, the deal
will be announced on the 18th of December at the China Mobile Conference at
Guangzhou.
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Apple agrees deal to bring iPhones to China Mobile