“Apple’s major iPhone assembler Foxconn has shipped about 1.4 million iPhone 5Ss to China Mobile last week, according to a person familiar with the matter, ahead of the mobile giant’s launch this Friday,” Lorraine Luk reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“While the initial shipment volume doesn’t represent the total sales at China Mobile for January, the figure helps to gauge early demand for iPhones from China Mobile, the world’s biggest carrier by subscribers with more than 760 million customers,” Luk reports. “China Mobile began taking preorders for iPhones since Dec. 25. ‘Shipping one million or more iPhones to a single carrier per month is substantial. But we have limited visibility beyond this month as Apple hasn’t informed Foxconn of the volume for the next shipment to China Mobile,’ said the person.”
“‘Shipping one million or more iPhones to China Mobile every month would be significant to Apple as its average monthly iPhone sales in China is only about two million,’ said Gartner analyst Sandy Shen,” Luk reports. “According to Gartner, Apple sold 18.5 million iPhones in China in the first three quarters of 2013, up 28% from a year earlier. ‘We have seen fading enthusiasm for iPhones compared with the past few years as we have more choices in China now. There has been no dramatic change to the iPhone and consumers want a larger screen size,’ said Shen, noting that other handset makers including Samsung, Sony and HTC all offer bigger screen smartphones. Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones in the fourth fiscal quarter ended Sept. 28, up 26% from the same period a year earlier.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You may have more choices in China now, but there’s only one Apple and there’s only one 64-bit smartphone in all the world. A bunch of iPhone knockoffs aren’t very choice at all.
And, anyone who says “there has been no dramatic change to the iPhone” is a fool, a competitor’s shill, or both.
What a good excuse ! A person familiar with the matter ? Is she the Foxconn cleaner ?
I can see that if you live in China, maybe you like Samsung a little bit more because they are your neighbors. Like if there was a phone made in China, and one made in Canada, I might lean towards liking the Canadian phone. What I don’t understand is these Americans who spend their hard earned money on an inferior Samsung product rather than on the inventor of the category, Apple, based right here in our own country.
If you think chosing an iPhone has to do with anything other than product quality, support and a superior user experience, You are delusional.
iPhone is an investment that never goes sour.
Wow. Ever watch the news or read a history book? Here is Samsung’s address:
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
129, Samsung-ro
Yeongtong-gu
Suwon, 443-742
South Korea
The key part is the word “South”. China and the “North” are team players. You know, the country in poverty at war with the “South”. The regular people may look past it but those in charge know the difference between “North” and “South”.
Are you ok, Jersey? It doesn’t take much for you to throw your monkey shit at someone does it? Might wanna look into a therapist.
Usually when anyone says there’s been no dramatic change to the iPhone, they’re usually referring to the size of the display. As most of you should realize that it’s been determined display size is the only thing that’s important for smartphone sales. Apple could make a thousand internal changes to the iPhone but the main complaint will be that the 4″ display is too small which supposedly makes the entire iPhone seem behind the times. There’s also a correlation between size and price. Many consumers think why should they pay more for an iPhone with a smaller display than the cheapest Android smartphones.
I’m sure when Apple comes out with an iPhone with a larger display it will be a really big deal like the iPhone finally entered into a new century. Of course, there will be those who will claim Apple entered the large display battle too late and is now just another Android smartphone follower. I’m anxious to see if iPhone sales really take off if it gets a larger display. Somehow, I doubt that happening if Apple is going to raise the price of an iPhone with a larger display.
This report is from Gartner, they are paid to print what their customer wants.