“The three-year deal with China Unicom, the country’s second-largest carrier with more than 14O million customers, is not exclusive, in sharp contrast to its U.S. arrangement with AT&T Inc.,” Adegoke reports. “Exclusivity would have severely hurt Apple’s chances of growing much beyond Unicom’s customer base.”
MacDailyNews Take: Thank you, Mr. Painfully Obvious.
Adegoke reports, “As it is, Apple is free to pursue deals with China Mobile (0941.HK), which has 500 million subscribers, and China Telecom (0728.HK), with another 42 million subscribers.”
“Those numbers are staggering, even for a company of Apple’s size,” Adegoke reports. “China’s 700 million mobile subscribers are more than that of the United States and Europe’s combined… ‘We estimate they can have roughly 10 percent share in calendar year 2010 so our total iPhone estimates for calendar year 2010 for Apple are 37 million units,’ said Brian Marshall, analyst at Broadpoint AmTech.”
Adegoke reports, “Apple shares, having doubled this year, have largely priced in a China iPhone deal, long the subject of speculation. They rose less than 1 percent to $170.05 on the Nasdaq on Friday. Still, Susquehanna analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro said investors might be underestimating how well Apple could do in China.”
Full article here.
For every iphone sold in China there will be a thousand knock-offs being used. Those millions of subscribers are overrated.
@ Spark,
I bow to the man who has traveled extensively in China and knows, personally, how many Chinese can afford an iPhone.
If you say texting by drawing the characters on the touch screen won’t wow the Chinese people, then I believe you.
Yes I personally know all of those 700 million subscribers. During the weekend, I asked every one of them if they would buy an iPhone.
Guess what?
They all told me yes!
Pretty hard to believe but… there it is. My research proves it.
Go Apple!
😀