China Unicom, one of China’s leading telecom operator startedoffering iPhone 4S with a service contract in January. Now,Apple has teamed up with another leading carrier – China Telecom to boost the sale of its iPhone 4S in the nation.
From next month, China Telecom users who commit to a two-year contract can get a free 16-gigabyte handset with a service plan costing 389 yuan ($62) a month, while a three-year plan cuts the monthly minimum to 289 yuan.
China Mobile Ltd, the world’s largest carrier by customers, has also been negotiating a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone, but the operator uses a home-grown proprietary 3G technology called TD-SCDMA that Apple doesn’t support. It is, however, expected to launch its 4G TD-LTE network, late this year or early in 2013, which would help it work out a deal with Apple.
“iPhone 4S has been an incredible hit with customers around the world. The company can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers in China,” said Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Apple.
Apple was the fifth-largest smartphone maker in China in the fourth quarter, with shipments of 2.08 million handsets, according to Gartner data. The technology giant ‘s iPhone market share in China is expected to be quite steady after its deal with China Telecom, which has more than 38.7 million 3G subscribers.
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