Apple and China Unicom in talks to extend their deal

There is no doubt that Apple would love to dominate the Chinese market when it comes to their iOS devices. In fact they have taken steps to ensure that they are China-friendly with iOS 6 whereby local Chinese services (i.e. Weibo, Youku, Baidu, etc) have been included to ensure that it is a familiar experience for Chinese iOS users. With that being said, China Unicom has revealed that they are currently in talks with Apple about possibly extending their deal beyond the three year agreement which they had originally signed back in June of 2009. According to the carrier’s president, Lu Yimin, the talks are apparently going well and a new deal is expected to close soon.

To give it some context, China Unicom was Apple’s first telco partner back in 2009. The company has since gone on and added another partner to that list in the form of China Telecom. They have yet to join up with China Mobile, which is apparently the world’s largest carrier with 650 million subscribers on board, a number which we’re sure Apple wouldn’t mind owning a percentage of. So for our readers in China, it seems that if China Unicom is your preferred carrier and iOS is your favored OS, there is a good chance that Apple’s future iOS products will continue being offered on the carrier.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: china unicom