China’s biggest mobile firm starts selling Apple iPhone
18 Jan 2014 12:40 AM GMT
The combination of China Mobile`s existing base of 760 million customers and its plans to roll out the world`s largest 4G (fourth generation) network have executives from the Chinese firm and Apple forecasting a fruitful union — after a long engagement.
‘China Mobile and Apple are newly wedded after six years of courtship,’ the Chinese firm`s chairman Xi Guohua said Wednesday.
‘Our married life just begins,’ he told a media briefing in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The iPhone is already sold through China`s two other major telecom firms, 10 Apple stores in mainland China and a new online store on Taobao Mall —the leading business-to-consumer marketplace operated by Alibaba Group. Smuggled iPhones are also widely available in China, carried back from overseas where they are cheaper, sold openly online and through small electronics shops.
‘What this partnership does is, it allows us to take the iPhone to a different level in China, to marry it with the fastest network,’ Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook told the briefing, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
‘I see a huge barrier being removed, because there are lots of people that love China Mobile`s network and love iPhones and those two spheres are finally coming together.’
‘China Mobile and Apple are newly wedded after six years of courtship,’ the Chinese firm`s chairman Xi Guohua said Wednesday.
‘Our married life just begins,’ he told a media briefing in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The iPhone is already sold through China`s two other major telecom firms, 10 Apple stores in mainland China and a new online store on Taobao Mall —the leading business-to-consumer marketplace operated by Alibaba Group. Smuggled iPhones are also widely available in China, carried back from overseas where they are cheaper, sold openly online and through small electronics shops.
‘What this partnership does is, it allows us to take the iPhone to a different level in China, to marry it with the fastest network,’ Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook told the briefing, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
‘I see a huge barrier being removed, because there are lots of people that love China Mobile`s network and love iPhones and those two spheres are finally coming together.’
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