China Mobile Stores Going All Out for iPhone and iPad Promotion

Following the start of pre-orders for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on China Mobile earlier this week, new photos from PRC and ME show just how much the world's largest carrier is emphasizing its launch of Apple's products.

china_mobile_store_iphones
The carrier's relatively small store at the Link City shopping mall in Shenzhen is covered in Apple promotional signage, including wall-mounted banners and a large scrolling digital ribbon sign advertising discounted pricing on the new iPhones, extra free-standing signage, and even a flatscreen television replaying video of Apple's iPhone 5s/5c introduction from September.

Not only were there Apple advertisements all over the place, but even Phil Schiller was present, his A7 chip announcement playing on a flatscreen TV. A majority of the ad and display space in the store had been dedicated to Apple. If this is any indication, China Mobile is planning to aggressively promote their new Apple partnership in the hopes of blunting any advances from China Unicom and Telecom.

One of the store's two display tables is entirely devoted to Apple products, with iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPad, and iPad mini units on display for customers to try out, extra iPhone 5c samples showing the various color options, and a China Mobile salesperson staffing the table at a large iMac.

The China Mobile iPhone launch comes just as market research firm Counterpoint Research revealed a significant jump in Apple's smartphone market share in China in October, with Apple leaping from sixth place to third with over 10% of the market on the strength of the iPhone 5s and 5c launches. With China Mobile opening iPhone availability up to millions of potential new customers beyond launch partners China Unicom and China Telecom, Apple is clearly looking to make a significant move in the world's largest market.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

Plutonius Avatar
150 months ago
I banned iPhones (and smartphones) from all meetings at work.

I think more will get done if you also ban meetings at work.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
150 months ago
Most of Wall Street believes Apple will sell about a few million iPhones, tops, on China Mobile's network. That's out of China Mobile's 750 million subscribers. Apple is estimated to sell about measly 1% of iPhones out of China Mobile's entire user base. Quite a bit of confidence in Apple... NOT! Apple is being majorly disrespected by Wall Street and there's no one from Apple willing to step up and tell them to go to hell. :mad:

What's your source for "most of Wall Street"?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tootall Avatar
150 months ago
Most of Wall Street believes Apple will sell about a few million iPhones, tops, on China Mobile's network. That's out of China Mobile's 750 million subscribers. Apple is estimated to sell about measly 1% of iPhones out of China Mobile's entire user base. Quite a bit of confidence in Apple... NOT! Apple is being majorly disrespected by Wall Street and there's no one from Apple willing to step up and tell them to go to hell. :mad:

Consumers will tell them with their wallet...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleScruff1 Avatar
150 months ago
As an apple shareholder, this makes me very, very happy.

As an apple fan, this also makes me happy - millions of people that wanted the iPhone can finally get one, legally! The more people that experience the iPhone, the better the world will be :)

(and I'm not kidding, iPhones bring people closer, and connect our world in a way that nothing else can... it's amazing :) )

This has to be the funniest post I have read here for a long time!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wingsy Avatar
150 months ago
Copy In Reverse :)

I think they'll overtake Samsung, atleast until the Samsung Galaxy S5 (or whatever) is released.

Samsung even copied the letter and number in Apple's latest phone. They had to reverse the letters so they wouldn't get sued, just like they had to reverse engineer the iPhone to copy it too. \s
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spyguy10709 Avatar
150 months ago
As an apple shareholder, this makes me very, very happy.

As an apple fan, this also makes me happy - millions of people that wanted the iPhone can finally get one, legally! The more people that experience the iPhone, the better the world will be :)

(and I'm not kidding, iPhones bring people closer, and connect our world in a way that nothing else can... it's amazing :) )
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)