Apple sent out invites for its iPhone unveiling event yesterday, scheduled for September 10. Chinese media, however, is getting different invites for the following day – it seems that Tim Cook's negotiations with China Mobile's chairman have paid off.
China Mobile is the world's biggest carrier with 740 million subscribers and yet Apple had no deal with it, having partnered only with China's second and third carriers. The issue was with China Mobile's non-standard 3G and 4G tech, which was not supported by the chipsets Apple was using. New Qualcomm-made chipsets do support them though.
Another problem was that the iPhone was too pricey for the majority of China Mobile subscribers, who often went with local Android-based phones instead. Well, the Chinese invite features the same colorful circles that are allegedly a nod towards the many colors of the lower-priced iPhone 5C, which should have a more competitive price.
Mingchi Kuo, analyst from KGI, is forecasting that Apple will sell 1.5-2.5 million iPhones in Q3 alone, which would achieve around 25% and 35% market share (for iPhone 5S and 5C respectively) among TDD-LTE enabled handsets on China Mobile.
The event, the first ever Apple event to be held in China, is scheduled for 10am local time on September 11.