Apple and China Mobile may finally have a deal to offer the iPhone to the carrier’s 700 million-plus subscribers, but most of those people are unlikely to be able to use the iPhone as an LTE device anytime soon. According to The Wall Street Journal, China Mobile will unveil an iPhone that works on its upcoming TD-LTE network on December 18. Other news sources say December 18 will also mark the launch of China Mobile’s LTE service, but that service is likely to launch in just a few markets at a time.
The Chinese government has just cleared the way for China Mobile to launch LTE services. The faster network will be a welcome change for China Mobile’s customers, as the carrier’s 3G network was considered inferior to those of its competitors. Fewer than 25% of China Mobile’s customers are on its 3G network now, with the rest using slower connections.
Concerns about China Mobile’s 3G network are thought to be one reason the carrier has not gotten the iPhone sooner. China Unicom and China Telecom both have the iPhone already. Both these carriers are expected to launch LTE using the FDD-LTE standard, though the Chinese government has yet to issue licenses for those launches.
China Mobile will use TD-LTE, a standard which is supported by both the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s. If China Mobile can turn on LTE for its subscribers before these phones are replaced by newer models, the company has a good chance at leapfrogging its rivals in terms of iPhone sales.
But the iPhone is just one small part of the smartphone picture in China, where local manufacturers produce dozens of inexpensive Android smartphones. According to china.org, Apple has 6% of the Chinese smartphone market, while Samsung has 21%. Lenovo, Yulong and Huawei all have greater smartphone market share than Apple in China.
