It seems that customers using China Mobile may soon be able to get their hands on the Apple iPhone as the giant carrier is currently building cooperation with Apple. Although developments are not far enough along to know if this will happen this year the news will no doubt please many potential iPhone customers who use China Mobile.
China Mobile has the largest amount of users of any phone company across the world, with 667.2 million subscribers, so this development would be a huge deal for Apple and of course for China Mobile itself. The news came at a shareholder meeting in Hong Kong today chaired by China Mobile’s new chairman Xi Guohua who told how talks between the company and Apple were underway to enable them to offer the iPhone.
China Mobile is currently making progress with its move to a fourth-generation wireless network in a bid to reverse a decline. This was partially caused by its own 3G network service not being suitable to run some of the latest mobile devices, such as the iPhone, which saw some customers jumping ship to carriers such as China Unicom and China Telecom Corp. Around 200,000 China Mobile 4G base stations could be in place next year if current fourth-generation network trials are successful.
Although Xi has spoken of plans to strengthen cooperation between China Mobile and Apple, Apple spokesperson Carolyn Wu declined to comment, according to Bloomberg. China Mobile shares fell by 3% as of 1:12pm in Hong Kong trading to HK$85. We’d like to hear your thoughts on what would be a giant expansion to Apple’s iPhone market so let us have your comments on this.