Agreement between Apple and China Mobile to sell iPhones - The Express

Under the agreement, which could boost Apple net sales of several billion smartphones American society will be sold by China Mobile from January 17.

Prices for new iPhone 5S and 5C sold in China will be specified later, Apple said in a statement. 5C The iPhone was launched in September to conquer emerging markets. (See)

China Mobile announced its side on the microblogging site Sina Weibo, it would allow its 760 million subscribers to pre-order an iPhone from December 25.

the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, as China Mobile gained 1.25% to 80.90 Hong Kong dollars at 2:35 GMT.

Apple did not specify the financial terms of the agreement with China Mobile, but its CEO, Tim Cook, has made no secret that China represents a market “ very important “for the California-based company.

China is already the second largest market for Apple, behind the United States, but the Apple brand is behind its competitors, Samsung Electronics, Huawei Technologies and Lenovo.

iPhone shipments to China increased by 32% yoy in the third quarter. This is two times less than Lenovo (64%), which had the second lowest growth after that of Apple.

LICENSE 4G

According to research firm Forrester Research, China Mobile could allow Apple to sell 17 million iPhones nothing in 2014, higher than the 16.8 million that the U.S. giant sold in China during the year ending in September.

analysts still expect that these are likely debut fanfare followed by a new expensive commercial battle with Samsung.

China Mobile was so far the only Chinese operator not to offer iPhones to its customers due to compatibility problems between U.S. smartphones and 3G wireless technology.

negotiations between the two companies has lasted for years, including the time to flatten, according to analysts, disagreements over revenue sharing.

The last obstacle was lifted on December 4 by the Chinese regulatory authorities have granted when a 4G license to China Mobile, as China Unicom and China Telecom.

latest models of iPhones are equipped with 4G technology.

China Mobile

estimated 45 million subscribers already use an iPhone, bought without a plan and bridled 2G due to incompatibility with 3G.

(Tangi Salaün for the French service))