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back to article Official: Apple hooks up with WORLD'S LARGEST MOBILE OPERATOR

Apple will soon launch a bid to convert more than 700 million new fanbois and gurlz after belatedly inking a deal with the world's largest mobile phone provider. The announcement comes after almost two years of behind the scenes wrangling between the fruity firm and China Mobile, after Apple's exclusivity contract with China …

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  1. David Webb

    3G

    I thought Apples 3G phones were not compatible with that network?

    Previously, China Mobile subscribers have not been able to use Apple's iPhone, because the firm's 3G technology was not compatible with Apple handsets.

    From BBC news, so is there going to be a specific 3G model created for China?

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    1. Henry Blackman
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      Re: 3G

      The 5C and 5S are fully compatible with the China Mobile network.

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      1. Tim Worstal
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        Re: 3G

        Not quite. There are versions of both that are TD-SCDMA compatible but not all versions of the two iPhones are so compatible. All are TD-LTE compatible though.

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  2. LarsG

    So much for that last El Reg article that said Apple had failed to make the deal!

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    1. Philip Lewis
      Reply Icon

      Hmm, I think expecting accuracy from The Register reprinting second hand reports from know-nothing ANALysts is perhaps an unrealistic expectation.

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      1. SuccessCase
        Reply Icon

        @philip Lewis

        If you spend your time throwing shit for hits you end up smelling of it.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Christmas came early for Apple shareholders - up around 4% on the news and that is just the start - a massive deal with the worlds largest telco.

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  3. Simon Rockman

    It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

    I suspect that China will be the same as the rest of the world.

    Rich people who can afford whatever they want will buy the 5S

    Poor people who don't want others to know how poor they are will buy the 5S

    The only people who buy the 5C are those who want an iPhone, iTunes and all that goes with it, are on a tight budget and don't care about the impression it gives. It's buying into the ecosystem and not the culture.

    Many more - especially in the emerging world - are the other way around. They buy an iPhone because of "What it says about them". I recently met an unemployed single mother who was living on benefits. She still had an iPhone.

    I've only ever seen one 5C in the wild.

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    1. macole111
      Reply Icon

      Re: It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

      Therefore those who would buy a 5C will get an Android or Windows phone with similar features for a lower price if they don't care about the 'brand'. Like most Reg readers I expect.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

        "Like most Reg readers I expect." Who must have their "Sammy" (EUGH) hardware. No, most on the Register are just a different kind of fanboy, they are just in denial.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

      Does it really matter what sells?

      They still make the money.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

      @simor sez I recently met an unemployed single mother who was living on benefits

      No you didn't.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It will be interesting to see the split between 5c and 5s

        Maybe he did, but I suspect you're right and he didn't. If he did that's an amazingly positive statement of the power of the brand. Simon seems to see this as something negative to Apple, but of course it's quite the reverse if a single mother on benefits is captured by the power of the Apple brand.

        Simon clearly wants us to realise that she'd rather buy the baby formula and nappies than buy naff malware ridden android ;-P

        Funnily enough I can hear the down votes from all those gents in man made uppers coming.. Lol

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  4. Don Jefe

    Wrong Metric

    If you're negotiating contracts and using potential sales of a given product as a make or break metric for the deal you're doing it wrong. Sales potential of a deal is absolutely not the most important fact. That's get the deal went through anyway.

    Sales potential is just that, potential, it actually means nothing, it has no value, zero. Signing a deal though, that's where the money is. That's a quantifiable goal that has to be met before any sales happen. It's far more important to get into your target market, afterward you can address product velocity issues. Products can be changed to suit the need. Deals are fairly static.

    It's just like job interviews. How many times have you said 'you know you can get the job, if you can just get the interview'? Get the interview first. Once you've landed the job you can do whatever needs to be done to make sure your performance is satisfactory.

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    1. ratfox
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      Re: Wrong Metric

      "Products can be changed to suit the need."

      In the case of the iPhone, I would doubt it. It's not like Apple is going to make a different iPhone from now on just for China Mobile. If anything, China Mobile would have waited until they saw a iPhone (5c?) they liked before signing a deal.

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      1. Don Jefe
        Reply Icon

        Re: Wrong Metric

        Apple currently don't need to change their product. It's pretty foolish for any company to change their products when people are still buying them as they are. It's doubly foolish to change when people are buying so many at such large margins it has made you the most valuable company on the planet.

        The conundrum created by your own success is called the 'Inventors Dilema': At what pace do you release new products without causing a reduction in the money from your existing products? Even after product sales have begun to decline your margins increase with every unit as you've long ago recovered production equipment costs many, many times over.

        Not enough change or new products is equally as bad as too much change or too many products at once. Finding the right balance is very difficult.

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  5. Ramazan
    Holmes

    I'd bet China can force Apple to rethink their miniSIM->microSIM->nanoSIM trend and return to miniSIM.

    1 4
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Please no, I don't want to have to mess about with getting yet another sim!

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    2. Steve Todd
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      Stop

      Want to put money on that?

      From a carrier perspective they couldn't give a damn what type of SIM is takes providing they aren't expensive and they can order them in the required numbers. From Apple's point of view the nanoSIM takes up much less space inside the case (which is hardly roomy) that can be otherwise used for things like batteries. Not going to happen.

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      1. John Tserkezis
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        Re: Want to put money on that?

        "From a carrier perspective they couldn't give a damn what type of SIM is takes"

        Yeah they do. There's push for embedded sims, great for subsidised phones, and great for the carrier, the user can't possibly change the sim because its function is part of the phone electronics. Even better that SIMs are not carrier-transferrable (not that I know of anyway).

        The Ultimate Lock In. The fact it has the Apple logo will test the limits of fanboi-ism, how much are users willing to put up with before they bail?

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  6. W. Anderson

    This certainly has to be bad news for all the Microsoft worshipers who frequently comment on The Register forums, particularly since they have been claiming for some time now the eminent replacement of Apple by Microsoft in the mobile devices - smartphones and tablets as the No.2 company in that space worldwide.

    It also certainly will make it harder therefore for Microsoft to move to next planned step, according to their minions, of toppling Samsung and all the other Android device vendors to again be the "largest (and greatest?) technology company in the world" ,aka circa late twentieth century. (sic)

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