“China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest phone company, will spend more on subsidies next year as it tries to boost smartphone sales by as much as 42 percent and lure customers to its new high-speed service,” Bloomberg News reports.
“China Mobile plans to sell as many as 220 million smartphones next year, compared with 155 million this year, Chairman Xi Guohua said today in Guangzhou, according to remarks posted on the carrier’s official microblog account,” Bloomberg News reports. “The carrier has yet to reach agreement with Apple Inc. (AAPL) to offer the iPhone, the official China Daily newspaper reported today, citing Xi.”
“Handset subsidies will expand next year from the 27 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) spent this year, Xi said, as the carrier seeks to push more of its 759 million subscribers to higher-priced voice and data plans on the faster network,” Bloomberg News reports. “China Mobile hopes to have an agreement with Apple ‘soon,’ the China Daily quoted Xi as saying.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: China Mobile hopes to have an agreement with Apple ‘soon,’ Xi said, according to China Daily.
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‘Nother couple of shares socked away at a ridiculously low price at the open due to this news. Yay!
You got it …. Buy on this news – China Mobil is coming!
No bout adout it.
The AAPL price drop is probably a reflexion of China Mobiles negotiations intent to force Apple into accepting less to get a deal signed sooner.
Or Apple could be holding out to get an even better deal. China mobile wants this 4G rollout to be a wild success (hence the subsidies) and Apple, knowing that CM needs the iPhone to guarantee the best 4G uptake possible, is making sure they get everything they want. In any case, there must be some super-brinksmanship at play on the part of both parties.
There’s far too much negative press surrounding Apple that shouldn’t even affect Apple’s share price but does. The WSJ put out a rumor and now the rumor was found to be incorrect. Billions of dollars change hands based on rumors. Ridiculous.
Meanwhile Google and Amazon continue to climb while Apple shifts into reverse due to rumors. Apple continues to be a retail investor’s nightmare and Tim Cook is unable to do anything to prevent it. Rather disappointing.
…and the surprise is…?