UBS says that China Telecom's Apple iPhone launch delayed possibly until the middle of next year

According to UBS, China's third largest carrier might have its initial launch of the Apple iPhone pushed back to the middle of 2012. Originally, the mobile operator was scheduled to release the Apple iPhone 4S around this time of the year. At the moment, China Unicom is the only carrier in China allowed to officially sell the iPhone. China Telecom instantly became the country's third largest mobile operator when it bought the domestic CDMA operations of China Unicom.

Analyst Wang Jinjin performed some "channel checks with value chain suppliers" and has come to the conclusion that the China Telecom Apple iPhone 4S launch will take place no earlier than February or March 2012 with the latest time period being the middle of next-year. Last month, we reported that the world's largest CDMA carrier was budgeting $235 million for subsidies and for a marketing campaign for the smartphone even though the device has yet to have been officially introduced by the operator. China Telecom's CEO Wang Xiaochu says that offering the Apple iPhone 4S is a big step forward in carrying a number of high-end handsets to his customers. Apple stands to bring in as much as $9 billion from its deal with China Telecom,

Many of China's carriers have poachers with the Apple iPhone using their network without a service contract, especially since the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S which is a world phone with both a CDMA and GSM radio. The number of such unauthorized iPhones using service without a signed pact is over 4 million

source: AppleInsider