China Telecom sub-label Beijing Telecom stated Tuesday local time that a China Telecom-native iPhone 4S was expected within about a month. It said the CDMA version would "likely" reach the network by late February or early March, China Daily said. Apple's device had already been given regulatory clearance for China Telecom's network and would face few barriers.
Apple will likely sign iPhone deals with both China Telecom and China Mobile "over the next year," adding up to 40 million more iPhone sales in 2013, argues Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty. The iPhone is already available on China Unicom, but Huberty suggests that the carrier can only offer Apple 10 percent of a group of about 150 million "high-end Chinese subscribers," those being people who pay more than 100RMB ($16) per month. Of that selection, about 120 million are said to be with China Mobile, and a remaining 10 percent with China Telecom.
The chief for US Cellular's parent, TDS, hinted in a presentation at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Monday that US Cellular would be open to an LTE iPhone. It was "never going to say never" about Apple's device, but the carrier wanted the device on its newest network before considering. Its LTE network goes live in early 2012 and will already be at half coverage of its regional-sized network by the end of 2012.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was reported on Monday as having approved the iPhone 4S for sale in China. The HSPA 3G version of the phone has passed government tests, clearing it for sale on China Unicom. It should get a network license this week, Sina claimed.
The GSMA have announced that 45 of the world’s major carriers have committed to supporting SIM-based Near Field Communications (NFC). Among the carriers to pledge their support of the new standard are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, China Mobile and China Unicom, Vodafone, and Telefonica. In making the announcement, the GSMA have now published (PDF) a new set of industry specifications to further accelerate adoption of the technology.
Apple is in "no rush" to make a TD-SCDMA iPhone for China Mobile, says Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. Wu's industry sources claim that Apple has actually been beta-testing TD-SCDMA-equipped iPhones for a while. Because of success with current official carrier China Unicom, however -- as well as over 10 million unlocked iPhones on China Mobile, plus sales in Taiwan and Hong Kong -- Apple allegedly has no strong interest in TD-SCDMA, and may actually skip the Chinese-only 3G standard in favor of preparing for a 4G TD-LTE iPhone.
China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou disclosed at ITU World on Monday that China Mobile had over 10 million unofficial iPhone users. He hinted that Apple hadn't reached a deal for the iPhone 4S but hadn't had problems attracting users, even with full-price unlocked devices. China Unicom is the only official Chinese carrier in the country.
China Mobile and Apple are hoping to "find a solution for close collaboration" on TD-LTE and compatible hardware, specifically an iPhone, according to China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou. "We discussed this issue with Apple," Wang explained in an interview today. "We hope Apple will produce a new iPhone with TD-LTE. We have already got a positive answer from Apple."
China Telecom may have an all-out marketing campaign for its iPhone 5 launch if details given by a purported corporate insider. Referred to as the "Dragon Plan" by the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, it would see the second-largest Chinese carrier spend the equivalent of $234.6 million to market Apple's hardware. Pre-orders would start in September with the expected release in October.
China Mobile has met several times with Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the subject of adopting the iPhone, Reuters reports. The information emerged from executives speaking at a China Mobile press conference. The carrier already has some 7.44 million iPhone users on its network, even though the only official Chinese iPhone network is China Unicom.
Nokia is planning on entering the large Chinese mobile phone market with its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 devices. A Nokia executive speaking in Beijing, Colin Giles, said that it plans on launching its new handsets on China Mobile’s 3G network using the TD-SCDMA standard. Giles did not offer a launch timeframe, but indicated that China would continue to figure strongly in Nokia’s plans moving forward.
Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White pointed to a possible clue that Apple had largely finalized a deal for the iPhone 5 on China Telecom. Pointing to a Sohu news post, he understood the carrier had reached a "preliminary agreement" to carry two different versions of the iPhone as early as late October. The designs would include the genuinely new iPhone as well as the cheaper iPhone 4 version to help counter low-end Android.
Motorola may have a refresh or full-fledged sequel to the Atrix 4G based on a new leak of photos. The design is similar on a basic level but makes clear changes to the speaker, camera, and other subtle elements. While not much is mentioned of the insides, a flip around back by ePrice's source shows an eight-megapixel camera with "HD 1080p" video recording, suggesting both a better camera than the five-megapixel sensor with 720p video of today as well as a faster processor than the Atrix 4G's Tegra 2.
Verizon COO and soon-to-be CEO Lowell McAdam during the conference call for spring results said his company was anticipating the next iPhone's launch in the fall. Although he claimed Verizon didn't know when the new model would ship, the carrier was planning for a "significant jump" in business during the fall. Verizon had anticipated a release in the summer but didn't get that.
At least China Unicom and China Telecom will be carrying the next-generation iPhone, claims Caixin. The Chinese analysis firm quotes an unidentified source. It adds though that China Mobile -- the world's largest cellphone carrier, with over 611 million subscribers -- will not be the first in the country to sell the new device.
A late-night leak Tuesday has backed China Telecom carrying the iPhone by "close" to the end of 2011. Thanks to the existence of CDMA models, the company has all the technology and just needs to complete a deal. One Reuters tip warned that Apple's often strict negotiations didn't guarantee a deal, but another had the release narrowed down to November.
Apple's iPhone may be soon officially sold through carrier China Mobile, which is the world's largest carrier thanks to its 611 million subscribers. A research note from analyst Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities pointed to a Sohu.com report of an iPhone with China Mobile ID and a TD-SCDMA connection that isn't available on any current iPhone model (pictured). Thus far, China Unicom is the exclusive official provider of the iPhone, though there are as many as 5.7 million iPhone users on China Mobile using stepped down connections.
More discoveries in iOS 5 beta 2 have revealed some extra upsides beyond what's been seen so far. One look through the SDK has found that at least some updates will be allowed to work over 3G. Code strings relayed by Sonny Dickson to 9to5 showed mentions of alert messages that would require "a Wi-Fi or 3G connection to download."
"A new iPhone with China Mobile's network will debut and the cooperation will be announced in September," says a blog post by the carrier's marketing official, Liu Yang, as quoted by Shanghai Daily and Reuters. The Daily speculates that the device will support 4G networks, which could be backed by recent reports of TD-LTE negotiations. Most analysts, though, are only expecting an LTE iPhone in 2012, due to the limited spread of LTE in the US so far combined with other technological barriers.
Apple COO Tim Cook made an appearance at China Mobile's headquarters on Wednesday morning, according to a reporter for local publication First Financial Daily. Cook was spotted walking with seven or eight other people, a claim backed by a photo of him in the China Mobile lobby. The exact reason for his visit is unknown, although it was likely related to expanding iPhone sales.
China Unicom president Lu Yimin told investors late Tuesday that his company had started offering an ultra low-cost iPhone plan. The 66 yuan ($10) plan was about a third cheaper than before and designed to curb moves from other carriers. Company CEO Chang Xiaobing saw a "trend" towards rival carriers offering services with unlocked iPhones, according to Bloomberg's version of events.
China Telecom partly put to bed rumors of a deal with Apple by acknowledging that it was in talks for the iPhone. Chairman Wang Xiaochu said his company was "in touch" for a possible deal but couldn't say how far along any deal might be. The current carrier, China Unicom, has an exclusive that ends this year.
Carrier China Mobile has "reached consensus" with Apple on using TD-LTE technology in future iPhones, according to MarketWatch. The company's chairman, Wang Jianzhou, has however refused to say exactly what was agreed upon, and notes that talks are still continuing. The statement could signify that Apple has at least agreed to support TD-LTE, a variant of the regular LTE standard used elsewhere.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek claimed in a research note Friday that claimed to know details of the next iPhone. Saying that the phone was now called the iPhone 4S, he referred to "industry checks" that supported what had been rumored so far but also mentioned HSPA+ 3G support on GSM networks, implying 21Mbps. He was also told network support would expand to carriers that had been actively seeking it, including Sprint's CDMA network, T-Mobile's uncommon HSPA+ bands, and China Mobile's unique TD-SCDMA.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs "has expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date," claims China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou. The comment was made outside of a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference meeting in Beijing. China Mobile recently won government approval to start large-scale testing of TD-LTE, specifically in Shanghai, Hangzhou and four other cities.
China Unicom on Monday broadcast its plans to develop its own phone OS. Wophone, named after the company's Wo service, would run a custom version of Linux and target both smartphones and tablets. The strategy would help phones get to market faster by being already tailor-made for the Chinese, it said.
Apple has "made it clear" that a future iPhone will support the TD-LTE 4G standard, according to the chairman of carrier China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou. Reuters reports that the topic came up in relation to the prospect of a TD-SCDMA iPhone, for which China Mobile has been negotiating for approximately two years. TD-SCDMA is a Chinese-only cellular standard which would require special hardware support from Apple, likely in the form of a separate model.
The iPhone 4 is perhaps the most difficult Apple product to find in China, claims a Ticonderoga Securities analyst, Brian White. Continuing a tour of the country, White notes that local wait times for the iPhone 4 are now closer to two months; he suggests that official carrier China Unicom is unable to fill roughly a third of pre-orders. Unmentioned by the analyst is the effect of scalping, since it's believed that many of the iPhones being sold are being picked up for resale with a markup.
A Chinese version of the Curve 8900 that is the 8980 has just been spotted at the FCC. The handset, photos of which are available, sports China Mobile branding on its face, suggesting it's just a Chinese version that is being approved for use in the US. Unusually, however, it has a Wi-Fi radio, and not China's common WAPI variant.
Apple has signed a business agreement with China Mobile, says Ticonderoga Securities' Brian White. The analyst notes that a local publication, the Chengdu Chinese Commercial News, is claiming the birth of a "cooperation agreement" between the two companies, though what products or services that might involve is still unknown. China Mobile is the country's largest wireless carrier, with about 70 percent of the country's subscribers, or 569.8 million.
A Deutsche Bank analyst fueled further talk of a CDMA iPhone with word of a possible China Telecom deal in a research note reported today. "Intensive" supplier checks purportedly showed that the second-largest Chinese carrier was talking not only to Apple but to the CDMA chipset supplier, Qualcomm, to guarantee a deal, according to the South China Morning Post's copy of the note. It wasn't said how close a deal might be or whether there would be any changes to the rumored American design.
Motorola has taken the wraps off its latest smartphone for the Chinese market in the MOTO MT716. The handset operates on China Mobile's 3G network and uses the carrier's OPhone OS 2.0 software. It combines a 3.7-inch, 480x854 touchscreen along with a horizontal slide-out hardware QWERTY keyboard.
Apple has to make the iPhone available for Verizon and other carriers if it wants a chance at competing with Android, Bernstein Research analysts Pierre Ferragu and Toni Sacconaghi urged on Wednesday. Noting that Google has tripled its growth to 200,000 activations per day in just seven months, the bankers called Apple to make the iPhone available for the carriers that have become safe havens for Android, including not only Verizon but also O2 and Vodafone in Germany, China Mobile and Japan's NTTDoCoMo. If it doesn't happen, Android's total installed based could overtake Apple's in about 15 months, Bernstein wrote.
Sony Ericsson as unveiled a new Android-powered handset for China on Tuesday. The A8i was developed in conjunction with China Mobile, and is the first to support that carrier's TD-SCDMA network. Android is customized with China Mobile's own Open Mobile System (OMS) 2.0 and users interface using a 3.5-inch, 854x480 touchscreen.
Motorola on Monday officially released three new Ming-series handsets powered by Android. All are meant for the Chinese market, and include the Beihai MT810 for China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network, the Qilin XT806 for China Telecom’s CDMA network, and the Lucky A1680 for China Unicom’s WCDMA network. Each features Chinese handwriting support for their touchscreens.
China Unicom profits fell 54 percent in the second quarter, in spite of benefits from being the only official iPhone carrier in China, Bloomberg notes. The drop is attributed partly to discounts on phones, but mostly to marketing costs, which exceeded estimates. Unicom nevertheless attracted only 4.88 million subscribers in the quarter, as compared to China Mobile's 15.2 million. Mobile also continued to dwarf Unicom in overall subscribers, with 554 million versus 157 million.
HTC on Tuesday made its first serious push into mainland China by planning to launch phones under its own name. Instead of launching phones through Dopod, the Taiwan area smartphone maker will ship phones directly. It plans to launch the Desire and Wildfire as well as two China-specific phones, the Windows Mobile 6.5-based Tianxi and entry-level, Android-based Tianyi.
Chinese mobile regulating body TENAA has prematurely released photos and some specs of an upcoming Dell smartphone. The Dell Mini 3v is expected to support China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network, along with GSM networks, including HSDPA. Otherwise, the photos show that the Mini 3v will have a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and possibly a front-facing camera.
The Chinese government today renewed Google's Internet Content Provider license, allowing it to keep running its services in the country. The clearance followed a change by Google to its policy of redirecting traffic to its unfiltered Hong Kong site that officials warned would likely see Google's services forced out of the country. The company now instead simply takes customers to a special landing page where they have the option of visiting Google Hong Kong if they want to search.
China Mobile is interested in selling the iPad, says the CEO of the carrier, Wang Jianzhou. Reuters notes that the executive spoke today at an annual shareholder's meeting, where he also claimed that the company is talking with Apple about developing a TD-SCDMA-capable iPhone, presumably a fourth-generation model. TD-SCDMA is not used outside of China, however, and so a separate iPhone design with a different 3G chipset would be needed.
Microsoft's Kin phones are due to reach many many more carriers than just Verizon and Vodafone, based on a posting of raw data from leaked firmware. The scoop shows the One and Two, or possibly new models, also reaching the US through AT&T and T-Mobile in GSM versions, with Canada getting the phones through Rogers' sub-label Fido. Asia will also get a major lift with versions for both China Mobile and China Unicom as well as Japan's NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank.
Nokia on Friday introduced two new TD-SCDMA handsets for China Mobile with the C5 and X5. Both handsets support native 3G on China Mobile and get the first jointly-run mobile application store, the Mobile Market-Ovi Store. They also bring preloaded music, video and IM apps specific to the region.
Apple has again ranked first in a BusinessWeek list of the world's 50 most innovative corporations. The results are based on a poll of 1,590 executives from different countries, using a deliberately ambiguous definition of the term "innovation," though generally referring to bringing something new and profitable to the market, whether a product, service or strategy. Counterbalancing opinion is a 10 percent weight on stock returns, along with 5 percent values assigned to three-year revenue and margin growth.
Intel used the second day of its Developer Forum to unveil a new system-on-a-chip version of the Atom. Nicknamed Tunnel Creek, it will be based on the upcoming Moorestown Atom chip but will target computing in home users' embedded spaces: Intel suggests home media and phone tablets or in-car entertainment and nav systems. It will incorporate not just the memory controller but the graphics core as well, and in many cases it may not need an external chipset to handle other tasks.
Dell's plans to launch a new phone, as well as a port of an existing phone, have been given away in advance through the Chinese government's own Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center. The Mini 3T1 is completely new and would be a lower-cost phone with a smaller screen and a directional pad, either supplementing or replacing the touchscreen. It would also have a simpler two-megapixel camera (versus three on the Mini 3i) and support China Mobile's TD-SCDMA for 3G.
Apple may have to make some major strategic moves in order to continue growing iPhone share beyond where it is right now, claims Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi. While there may still be some room on the current course, Sacconaghi points out that the device is already sold in 89 countries by 143 carriers, amongst which it has 39 percent of the smartphone market. It is going to be "increasingly difficult" to squeeze more profit out of current partners, the analyst observes.
The iPhone has not helped to rescue China Unicom's finances, says the Wall Street Journal. The carrier's net profit fell 73 percent in the last quarter, a setback mainly attributed to the costs of building out a new 3G network. The company only managed to record 4.1 million 3G subscribers towards the end of February; this leaves it behind both China Mobile and China Telecom.
China Mobile has allegedly asked Apple to create a special version of the iPhone to support the carrier's local network technology, according to a Financial Times report. Chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou recently expressed hope to come to an agreement with Apple as soon as possible.
China Mobile on Thursday claimed it is still interested in selling the iPhone and upcoming iPad tablet, according to AFP. The carrier is said it expects to strike a deal with Apple sometime in the near future, although chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou declined to explain reasons for the delays.
Nokia has reportedly changed its mind about launching its 6216 classic handset, which would have been the company's first to have a built-in Near Field Communications (NFC) module communicate with its SIM card using the Single Wire Protocol (SWP). Nokia executives said the "consumer experience was not what it needed to be," but added the company would pursue integrating NFC technology without giving operators control over it. Nokia has two other handsets equipped with an NFC system.
