Apple announces deal with China Mobile

After all these years and all the false starts, it is now official. Apple has announced on Sunday that it has signed a deal with the world's largest carrier, China Mobile. The Apple iPhone 5s and Apple iPhone 5c will go on sale at Apple Stores, and China Mobile stores in the country starting on January 17th. China Mobile customers can start registering for the phones on Christmas Day. Pricing was not announced but Apple's web site in China shows that the unsubsidized 16GB Apple iPhone 5s will be priced at 5288 yuan ($870 USD) while the 16GB Apple iPhone 5c will cost 4488 yuan ($738 USD).

Apple and China Mobile also did not reveal the terms of their agreement. The Apple iPhone 5s and Apple iPhone 5c can now be purchased by the 763 million China Mobile subscribers, the vast majority of whom are rockin' a 2G signal. But with 4G LTE service now available, China Mobile could see plenty of upgrades in the coming year and Apple could be the beneficiary.

In the past, Apple could not offer the iPhone to China Mobile customers because of the carrier's proprietary 3G TD-SCDMA network. But now, the Cupertino based tech titan could be on the verge of selling as many as 15 million iPhones to China Mobile customers over the next year, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Toni Sacconaghi.

source: AP, WSJ