China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier recently announced it started offering Apple 5S and 5C as of 17th January. It is likely that China Mobile and Apple have high expectations to improve respective sales from this deal, however given the current characters of the market, and the Smartphone purchasing trend in China, the two companies involved will need to do a lot more to yield any significant return.
The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the global market leader in consumer panels, reports by the end of Q3 of 2013, approximately 63% of all Apple handsets in China are already on China Mobile's network, which means even before the recent sales agreement, over half Apple devices is already on China Mobile's network.
The report also shows, for every 100 smartphones on China Mobile, approximate 18 handsets are iPhones, a similar ratio for China Unicom and China Mobile who have had been selling iPhone under their official sales agreement for a while.
Obviously, customers on China Mobile who wanted an iPhone, obviously had found a way to source one via other channels, and since Apple has already made some progress within China Mobile, its room for growth is somewhat limited, and unlikely to see a huge sales boost for both organizations.
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