It seems that China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) is currently having talks with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to bring the iPhone to its network- which is currently the largest in the world.
China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE:CHL) is currently having talks with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) about the possibility of bringing the iPhone to its network. China Mobile Chairman, Xi Guohua revealed to shareholders recently that there were ongoing talks on how best the two firms could be able to work together in the near future.
This was revealed after various questions were asked on when China Mobile would start offering the iPhone to its subscribers. Currently, China Mobile is the largest carrier in China and the world with over 667 million subscribers. Furthermore, this huge mobile service provider in China is currently the only one that does not sell the Apple handset. However, China Mobile still has users in its network who are put at around 15 million.
At the same time, it was revealed that Apple might not reach the magical figure it had set for this year of 665 million subscribers. Therefore, in this new deal- that is still in the works, it would seem that China Mobile needs Apple, and Apple needs China Mobile so that both firms may reach their goals.
China Mobile was left out of the Apple bandwagon because its network does not blend in well with Apple mobiles. Therefore, it has currently embarked on a plan to roll out a 4G network for all its subscribers, and it has so far managed to cover six cities. But the rollout plan is expected to be carried out in totality next year, when all the company’s base stations get the 4G coverage; over 200, 000 units. The coverage this year is to test out the platform and correct any problems. Therefore, in order to keep up with the times, China Mobile’s partnership with Apple is quite opportune.
Apple has been in China for sometime now, and revealed that its revenue so far from the Asian country is more than what it made in the whole of last year. Therefore, the opportunity that will come with the partnership with China Mobile is simply unlimited, and this must make Tim Cook and his team glad, and working overtime to make sure that the deal goes through.
In fact, it had also been reported that Apple in order to ensure that the deal does really go through would make use of a Qualcomm quad-mode baseband chip so that the next generation iPhones can be compatible with LTE network, and 3G networks. We can only wait and see whether Apple will pull this off, and become even larger and iconic than it already is.
