Image: Forbes.com
There were already 42M iPhones in use on China Mobile‘s network even before Apple’s anticipated deal with the carrier to offer the handset officially, claims Chinese site SinaTech.
Up to now, China Mobile iPhone users in the network has reached 42 million, which has exceeded the U.S. AT & T and Verizon combined sales of the two operators …
42 million is a huge number, especially when you consider that none of them were subsidised: all had to have been purchased at full price. If true, you can see why the potential for subsidised handsets in China is massive …
Of course, it’s as yet an unsupported claim, but it’s not impossible when you consider that the figure is for all generations of iPhone. All those iPhone 3Gs had to go somewhere.
Chinese regulators signed-off on the final licence needed to sell the iPhone in the country officially last week, with analysts estimating that the Chinese and Japanese deals combined could be worth an extra 38M sales to Apple. As yet, however, there has been no official word on an agreement between Apple and China Mobile.
Via iMore
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China Mobile couldn’t possibly have 42 million iPhone users on it’s network. Peter Misek was certain that no one in China can afford an iPhone and that the iPhone 5c was far too expensive for them to purchase. After all, Peter Misek of Jefferies is supposedly one of the smartest analysts around and he would never make such a mistake. They say he sees the future better than most people know the present. He made sure he properly downgraded Apple on poor China sales because he didn’t want to mislead investors into believing Apple had a chance to sell an overpriced iPhone in China when Chinese consumers only want to buy Xiaomis and Samsung smartphones. He didn’t even need to wait until one iPhone 5c was sold before he made sure everyone knew the iPhone would be a fail in China. Thank goodness for analysts like Peter Misek. He saved investors from wasting money by buying Apple stock. He knows Apple is doomed because he is an analyzing genius.
The 42 million figure probably is accurate. More than half of the young adults I know, are using iPhone and many of them are using China Mobile’s network. In addition, the market share among high-end business men are dominated by China Mobile. In China, many people do not want to switch carrier because they do not want to change their numbers. However, they do want new phones and have to stick with China Mobile. Unlick United States, most Chinese subscribers ( at least 95%) do not get their phones from carrier
There aren’t 42million rich people in China able to afford buying an iPhone
It not about being rich in China or being able to able “afford” it. Most people in China don’t own a vehicle, don’t pay much for rent, food or clothes, don’t have internet, landline phones, or cable tv bills to pay for in their homes. Having a nice phone in China in a luxury item, a status symbol, in a country where luxury items are few and far between. People in the US will spend months or even years worth of salary for our luxury items, i.e. boats, cars, RVs, jet skis, watches, ATVs. Why do the “China-needs- cheap-phones” critics and analysts find it so hard to comprehend that someone in China might spend 6 month to a year’s salary on a phone. China doesn’t need any more cheap phones. I’m sure there a dozens if not hundreds of phone models on the market in China that sell for just a few bucks US. Why would Apple want to even attempt top to compete with the cheap phone market in China when it surely completed saturated. It would foolish for Apple to even attempt “out cheap” the Chinese.
It is very odd how the consumer behaves, specially when consuming electronics like smartphones, and yes the iPhone is a terrific handset and also a status symbol. Only time will tell if the 5C will succeed to enter the chinese market and become a respectable player.