China Mobile has held its Global Partners Conference in Guangzhou, which started on December 17 with the Main Forum on December 18. At the conference, China Mobile officially released its 4G business development plan and commercial main brand. Meanwhile, consumers were shown kinds of 4G Smartphone, including Samsung, HTC, Coolpad, while except iPhone. Thus, Apple's long-awaited deal to make the iPhone available to China Mobile users may have to wait a little longer.
Long-running negotiations over a possible alliance between Apple Inc and China Mobile Ltd are testing consumers' patience. And the carrier poured cold water on would-be iPhone shoppers on Wednesday, sayed that it's still in talks with Apple. "China Mobile has yet to reach an agreement with Apple, but good news deserves to be waited for, and we expect to release cooperation information soon," Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile, said at the Conference.
During a few months before the conference, multiple signs of an approaching deal between the two companies have popped up, with Apple receiving licensing needed to operate on China Mobile’s TD-LTE standard in September and releasing the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c with TD-LTE support. Though a deal has not been struck, it is clearly in the final stages as China Mobile has been accepting iPhone pre-orders and heavily promoting both the iPad and the iPhone in stores across China. China Mobile is also expected to bring millions of new customers to Apple, significantly increasing the company's presence in China. While Apple currently has deals with smaller carriers China Unicom and China Telecom, both carriers combined have fewer subscribers than China Mobile.
Bryan Wang, principal analyst with Forrester Market Advisory (Beijing) Co Ltd, said that Apple had already sold more than 16.8 million iPhone handsets in China in the 12-month period ended on Sept 30. He said that if China Mobile agrees to a partnership with Apple, iPhone sales will soar in China. "Apple Inc could sell as many as 17 million new iPhones to China Mobile users in the first year" after an agreement, Wang said.
It is estimated that a deal with China Mobile could potentially be worth billions of dollars in revenue for Apple. There is up to 759 million potential new China Mobile customers could gain access to iPhones, generating up to $3 billion in extra 2014 revenue - nearly a quarter of Apple's projected revenue growth in its current fiscal year. And the iPhone available to China Mobile users can be expected soon.
