Apple and China Mobile Reportedly Strike Deal to Bring iPhone to World's Largest Carrier
A report from CapitalVue is making the rounds today for its claims that Apple has finally struck a deal with China Mobile to a launch the iPhone on the world's largest mobile carrier. China Mobile currently has over 600 million customers.
Unfortunately, the sourcing on the rumor is somewhat uncertain, as the report points to "a company filing" picked up by Chinese-language site ccidcom.com. An automated translation of the article suggests, however, that the report came from the Associated Press, and we have been unable to locate such an article.
But if ccidcom.com's report is indeed true, it suggests that China Mobile will initially introduce the iPhone 4 in October, to be followed later by the iPhone 5 and future 4G LTE models based on the carrier's homegrown TD-LTE standard.
China Mobile has long expressed interest in offering the iPhone, and with Apple making a strong push into China the carrier certainly has to be a priority for Apple even with the technical hurdles of China Mobile's unique network standards. Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was spotted at China Mobile's headquarters back in June, fueling speculation that a deal was being finalized. Just a few weeks later, a photo on an alleged China Mobile prototype iPhone 4 surfaced, further suggesting that a compatible device has indeed been in testing.
Apple currently offers the iPhone in China only through China Unicom, but has also been reported to be moving toward a deal with China Telecom, perhaps even more quickly than with China Mobile. Regardless, it seems that Apple is certainly making the Chinese market a priority and is working hard to get all of the country's top carriers on board for the iPhone as quickly as possible.
Popular Stories
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Juli CloverApple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Juli CloverElevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro.
The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup.
The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie.
The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
