Apple's iPhones will go on sale later this year in China, the world's largest mobile market, its partner China Unicom confirmed this morning.
Unicom's announcement of the deal ended months of rumours about a tie-up with Apple, which has been trying to bring the iPhone to some of China's nearly 700 million mobile subscribers.
The mobile carrier also posted first-half profits that fell 45 per cent yet beat expectations.
"This will provide users with brand new communication and information experience," said chairman and chief executive Chang Xiaobing in a statement.
China Unicom said the iPhone would be available for sale in China starting in the fourth-quarter.
However, many analysts were sceptical of the impact on the bottom line for China Unicom.
"The financial impact of selling the iPhone is limited for China Unicom," said Yuanta Securities in a report dated August 21st, citing the small target market for expensive smart phones, the absence of a Wi-Fi function and the high subsidies that the company may have to pay to attract users.
Unicom made the announcement as it said its profit in the first half of the year fell 45 per cent to 6.62 billion yuan ($969 million) from 12.09 billion yuan.
The company is also struggling to integrate fixed-line operator China Netcom, which it absorbed last year as part of an industry-wide restructuring designed to increase competition by creating three major carriers.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier, China Telecom and Unicom are in the middle of a three-year $58.5 billion spending spree through 2011 to build their 3G networks.
In a sign that subsidies for handsets could be more expensive than carriers had previously planned for, China Telecom said yesterday it was increasing its budget for subsidies to 37 per cent of wireless revenues from 30 per cent.
Reuters