We heard a lot of rumors last year that Apple was close to clinching a deal with China Mobile which would put its iPhones on the world’s largest mobile carrier, boasting more than 750 million subscribers. Late last month the deal was finally confirmed, China Mobile launches iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on January 17th. It is expected that this deal will play out in Apple’s favor, the company is expected to sell as many as 20 million units on China Mobile alone in 2014. Apple CEO Tim Cook is certainly upbeat about this partnership, he’s “incredibly optimistic” about the deal and what it means for the future.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Cook says that this deal is just the beginning of Apple and China Mobile’s partnership, and that both of them can collaborate more in the future. On the other hand, China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua has revealed that pre-release demand has pushed orders into multi-millions, only yesterday it was rumored that more than 1 million iPhone 5s units have been delivered to the carrier just to meet demand after the launch. Volume for next month’s shipment is currently unknown. It is expected that cellular compatible iPads may also be launched on China Mobile later this year. According to analysts, this deal might add a lot of green to Apple’s balance sheets.
Filed in . Read more about China Mobile, iPhone and Tim Cook.