“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.