The much rumored deal between Apple and China Mobile was confirmed last month. We had been hearing for quite some time that both companies had been negotiating, at one point it was also rumored that Tim Cook flew down to China in order to meet with the carrier’s top brass. They’ve both finally reached an agreement which will see the world’s largest mobile carrier launch the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on January 17th. It may have a lot of iPhone 5s units on hand to cope with demand, rumor has it that Foxconn has delivered a shipment of 1.4 million iPhone 5s units to China Mobile last week.
Foxconn is Apple’s primary manufacturer of the iPhone, sources with knowledge of the plans claim that they don’t know what the order volume for China Mobile will be after January. This particular order is meant to cater to demand following the launch on China Mobile. The carrier has more than 750 million subscribers, and analysts expect Apple to sell up to 20 million units on the carrier alone in 2014. China Mobile has already started taking pre-orders for the new iPhones, it finally launches them on January 17th. The deal could help Apple’s market share in China surge from six percent, the company’s smartphones are under a lot of pressure from Samsung’s devices, and those made by local Chinese vendors.
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