Apple have been seeking international deals for their iPhone for some time now, and one of the biggies has to be China, as if Apple can actually strike a deal with China then the abundance of unofficial unlocked iPhone over there just may cut back a bit, and besides there are more people in China than there are in America so makes for good business to break into the Chinese market.
Jason Schwarz writes for SeekingAlpha, saying: “Over the last few weeks Apple has been signing international iPhone distribution deals at an astounding pace. Why so much urgency? Sure, they want the 3G iPhone to become a major global player, but the urgency has everything to do with their home court advantage; aka, the low dollar. Even Apple has taken notice that the low dollar might be on its way out and they realize that it’s time to seize the moment. Let’s take a look at the granddaddy of them all, India. Vodafone and Bharti Airtel will reportedly market the new handset through a staggering 250,000 retail outlets, including franchisee-owned shops. Compare this rollout with the meagre 7,000 Apple and AT&T stores in the US.”
Swartz went on to write “On top of this staggering 250,000 number, consider the profit effect of the low dollar; iPhones will be priced at 23,000 Rs or about $545 each. The US retail price is $399. The raucous [NBA] fans in Boston, Utah, New Orleans or San Antonio can’t touch that kind of home court advantage.”
So, apparently Apple has a new board member, Avon CEO Andrea Jung, who was responsible for Avon’s direct sales launch in China, so could this mean the Apple iPhone is taking that slow boat to China?
Well considering China Mobile has a subscriber base of some 375 million, the largest in the world mind you, and already supplies a service to the 400,000 unlocked and smuggled iPhone in China. Therefore it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the only board member not to be at the annual shareholders meeting in March was Andrea Jung, could this be because she was in China negotiating a deal?
Full article can be found here
Source – macdailynews