China Mobile Chief Executive Li Yue confirmed on Thursday that the carrier added one million new iPhone customers last month following the iPhone's launch in mid-January, reports the Wall Street Journal. China Mobile released these subscriber figures as part of its annual earnings statement, which also included the carrier's first profit decline in 14 years./article-new/2014/01/iphone_5s_china_mobile1.jpg?lossy)
To offset increasing competition from rival carriers China Unicom and China Telecom, China Mobile is trying to attract new customers with the combination of its new 4G network and flagship phones like the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c.
"We added 1.34 million new 4G users in February and most of them are iPhone users. We are happy with the progress as we are still building our 4G network and the coverage is only available in some major cities," China Mobile Chairman Xi Gouhua told The Wall Street Journal.
China is the world's largest mobile phone market by subscribers, and China Mobile is the country's largest wireless carrier with 776 million subscribers. Analysts predict the addition of the iPhone to China Mobile's smartphone lineup could boost iPhone sales by 15 to 30 million units in 2014. Apple sold 51 million iPhones globally in Q1 2014 and has sold 472.3 million smartphones in total as of January 2014.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)This is great news for all of us in the Apple community. iPhone continues to dominate around the world over all other handsets. Ignore the haters Tim, you're continuing to drive the remarkable Apple success story to even higher levels.
Hi Phil.
This is great news for all of us in the Apple community. iPhone continues to dominate around the world over all other handsets. Ignore the haters Tim, you're continuing to drive the remarkable Apple success story to even higher levels.
"You know, I think you're right! I'm going to continue being CEO. Thanks!" Tim Cook
This is great news for all of us in the Apple community. iPhone continues to dominate around the world over all other handsets. Ignore the haters Tim, you're continuing to drive the remarkable Apple success story to even higher levels.
Stop it, I'm not in a community. And 1 million China users does not change the user experience of my iPhone. It's great news for Apple, not for me.MacRumors is a community and you're a member. :) Apple's continued success translates to money they can invest in creating even more best of breed products in other categories. So it is good for news for all of us when Apple does well and we should celebrate it.
I disagree. I congratulate Apple for their success, but I ain't celebrating that a business that makes products that I may or may not like has more monies/market-share. Nor am I part of any 'community.' I use what I like and what suits my needs regardless of any brand or company it may be tied to.
Apple's continued success translates to money they can invest in creating even more best of breed products in other categories.
like selling ipad 4 yet again?