Apple may be plagued with a trademark dispute over the iPad name at the moment, but that hasn’t distracted them from expanding the horizons for the iPhone, which will finally debut on China Telecom next month as widely rumored.
Reuters is reporting that Apple has finally put pen to ink on a deal with China Telecom, which will bring the iPhone to two out of three carriers in that country. Despite being ranked as the smallest of the trio, sales with China Telecom is expected to boost Apple’s share of the smartphone market there, which fell to only 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 thanks to offerings by fast-rising Chinese manufacturer ZTE Corp.
"Apple's iPhone market share in China will be quite steady after its deal with China Telecom," remarked analyst Jane Wang with Beijing-based Ovum. "The deal is bound to boost iPhone sales, but telecom operators won't be giving up the mid- and low-tier smartphone market, and sales of those phones will still be quite strong."
China Telecom is valued at $46 billion despite being the smaller of the country’s three carriers, following in the path paved by second-largest China Unicom. Unfortunately, China’s largest carrier, China Mobile Ltd. with more than 600 million subscribers, uses an incompatible, proprietary 3G technology known as TD-SCDMA which is not supported by the iPhone. The company is expected to begin trials on a 4G LTE network later this year or early 2013 at the latest, which could better position the number one carrier to land the iPhone.
Online preorders for the iPhone 4S through China Telecom will begin on March 2, with sales kicking off on March 9, bundled with a service contract.
"iPhone 4S has been an incredible hit with customers around the world. We're thrilled to be launching iPhone 4S with China Telecom and can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers in China," Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said.
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