China Mobile to Begin iPhone Pre-Orders on December 12

there goes the stock-price (up, that is)

Inexplicably, this makes me very happy

So the market reacted negatively on Friday when rumors of the deal were that it fell through. Monday we get this add which looks similar to the one that was earlier redacted from a China Mobile affiliate. I sure as hell hope that the stock price shoots up on this news. It seems as if Wall Street has been holding the stock price hostage largely on part of the China deal.

This makes me happy, now the lines in the US will have less scalpers.

good news for Apple ... guess the stock will fall now again.

Nungster said:

So the market reacted negatively on Friday when rumors of the deal were that it fell through. Monday we get this add which looks similar to the one that was earlier redacted from a China Mobile affiliate. I sure as hell hope that the stock price shoots up on this news. It seems as if Wall Street has been holding the stock price hostage largely on part of the China deal.

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But last week when this first came out Apple stock was only up a couple bucks that day. Even today it's only up $2 pre market. So either Wall Street has already priced this in or they're waiting for an official announcement from Apple.

Rogifan said:

But last week when this first came out Apple stock was only up a couple bucks that day. Even today it's only up $2 pre market. So either Wall Street has already priced this in or they're waiting for an official announcement from Apple.

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While the deal would likely cause some upward movement it probably won't move too much until some sales figures come in. China is a difficult market and just being in there is not necessarily enough.

0815 said:

good news for Apple ... guess the stock will fall now again.

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That seems to be the trend. This is good news for Apple… it opens up a huge carrier.

Massive sales growth incoming.

Those tacky-colored phones with tacky-colored icons and screens are PERFECT for the chinese taste. But, they would have to get used to the lack to toxic chemicals and forced labor that went to make them. Except for the 5S, thank you Apple for selling crap back to china. :roll eyes:

Seriously, under a communist regime, I don't know how their people can afford them.
I am sure none of the fine workers Foxed&Conned who make the iPhones are able to afford them.
Do you want to know how many work for the mob, corrupt government officials, slave drivers, or environment poachers? Count the iPhones.

Is it just me or is the picture of the iPhone now gone from China mobile's site?
The WSJ is also saying the pic is gone which is why I looked.
Look for APPL to see saw some more.

MacVista said:

Those tacky-colored phones with tacky-colored icons and screens are PERFECT for the chinese taste. But, they would have to get used to the lack to toxic chemicals and forced labor that went to make them. Except for the 5S, thank you Apple for selling crap back to china. :roll eyes:

Seriously, under a communist regime, I don't know how their people can afford them.
I am sure none of the fine workers Foxed&Conned who make the iPhones are able to afford them.
Do you want to know how many work for the mob, corrupt government officials, slave drivers, or environment poachers? Count the iPhones.

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Jesus man, take a breath. Calm down. It's okay. *pat*

Seriously, how much does the average chinese worker make?

vmachiel said:

Massive sales growth incoming.

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Most China Mobile subscribers who want an iPhone already have one. Unlike the US, the Chinese by their phones outright with no contract.

MacVista said:

Seriously, how much does the average chinese worker make?

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My friend, you have been duped into believing that everyone in China lives a miserable life and that the majority of the people live under awful conditions. You probably also believe the same thing about Africa, with added words like "starving" and "disease".

The truth is, there are people thriving everywhere across the world and there are people who are not thriving everywhere across the world. China is not as under-developed and poor and rural and miserable as the media would perhaps like you to believe.

MacVista said:

Seriously, under a communist regime, I don't know how their people can afford them.
I am sure none of the fine workers Foxed&Conned who make the iPhones are able to afford them.
Do you want to know how many work for the mob, corrupt government officials, slave drivers, or environment poachers? Count the iPhones.

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China is no longer a communist regime. They used to be a totalitarian communist regime. Now they are just a totalitarian regime. Capitalism without democracy is running wild in China today.

this is not big, this is very BIG

Oh yeah more **** from chia. Woohoo.. You know we should start sending them videos of real sex cuz that's how we woud take there CASH. Or we could just sell broken phones to them..

I wonder.....

how a huge demand in the Grand China region can constraint or make pressure in global availability of the new iPhones............

Polite

Ha ha, that headline on the Chinese ad -- the one that starts in black type and then goes red -- is a common polite expression which means "Sorry, I made you wait a long time."

Re China Mobile subscribers already having iPhones it's true. In China, and Asia in general, the cell phone system is totally different. Generally you buy an unlocked phone and then get a SIM card from your carrier. So tens of millions have bought iPhones and then got a China Mobile SIM for it -- the only difference with China Unicom being that you could buy an iPhone in an actual China Unicom store.

However, there's a key difference in the service. The iPhone worked on China Unicom's "fast" network (fast by Chinese standards -- 3G I believe) but on China Mobile you were stuck on 2G (China Mobile's fast network was incompatible with the iPhone). A huge difference in speed. I mean: the difference between a usable smart phone and sitting there 3 minutes waiting to download one email. With the official rollout on China Mobile, I'm assuming the iPhone will now work on the faster China Mobile network.

You may wonder why people who wanted a fast-network iPhone didn't switch to China Unicom. The reason is that China does not have phone number portability. So to switch to Unicom you would have to get a new phone number. Since the cell phone is a key expression and embodiment of individuality in China (for instance, for young people, for whom it is still common to live with parents until marriage, your cell phone is often your own true "personal space"), changing a phone number is considered a much more troublesome task than it is here in the US.

So, although it's true there are millions with iPhones already on China Mobile, this should indeed generate a lot of business in China from:

-- People who just want the latest thing (that's a lot of folks in China!)
-- People already on China Mobile who have been putting off buying an iPhone until they could get on the fast network (probably not that many)
-- People already on China Mobile with an iPhone who now want to upgrade to use the faster network (many millions, surely). Some overlap in this category with the first category of course. There are definitely millions already on China Mobile with an iPhone 4 who have been putting off buying an iPhone 5 because they have heard talk about an official release for a long time (years, in fact).

So it's rather complicated to explain, but the bottom line is: very very good for Apple, but not as big as you might think without knowing the details.

MacVista said:

Seriously, how much does the average chinese worker make?

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Who cares about the average? Apple doesn't. There are 1.1 million millionaires in China. I wonder how many make $50k or more? Hell, even poor people in the states buy expensive phones. So to supplement your question, there's a lot of Chinese making more money than you.

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MacVista said:

Those tacky-colored phones with tacky-colored icons and screens are PERFECT for the chinese taste. But, they would have to get used to the lack to toxic chemicals and forced labor that went to make them. Except for the 5S, thank you Apple for selling crap back to china. :roll eyes:

Seriously, under a communist regime, I don'
t know how their people can afford them.
I am sure none of the fine workers Foxed&Conned who make the iPhones are able to afford them.
Do you want to know how many work for the mob, corrupt government officials, slave drivers, or environment poachers? Count the iPhones.

Click to expand...

Actually asians prefer gold, silver, and red. You seem like you don't possess knowledge of ther culture and are coming off a little rascist. Everyone is used to the forced labor already, if you own anything from China, Vietnam, and a ton of other countries not exclusive to Asia. There's even forced labor in the US.

The iPhones aren't made for the workers. That's like saying the Porshe cars are made for the dealership receptionist. The world is unfair. Live with it or don't.

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lazard said:

Most China Mobile subscribers who want an iPhone already have one. Unlike the US, the Chinese by their phones outright with no contract.

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TMobiles sales went up when they got the official iPhone. The US is different than the other countries in the world yes, but that is because we let the big 4 carriers create oligopolies.

kindadukish said:

Ha ha, that headline on the Chinese ad -- the one that starts in black type and then goes red -- is a common polite expression which means "Sorry, I made you wait a long time."

Re China Mobile subscribers already having iPhones it's true. In China, and Asia in general, the cell phone system is totally different. Generally you buy an unlocked phone and then get a SIM card from your carrier. So tens of millions have bought iPhones and then got a China Mobile SIM for it -- the only difference with China Unicom being that you could buy an iPhone in an actual China Unicom store.

However, there's a key difference in the service. The iPhone worked on China Unicom's "fast" network (fast by Chinese standards -- 3G I believe) but on China Mobile you were stuck on 2G (China Mobile's fast network was incompatible with the iPhone). A huge difference in speed. I mean: the difference between a usable smart phone and sitting there 3 minutes waiting to download one email. With the official rollout on China Mobile, I'm assuming the iPhone will now work on the faster China Mobile network.

You may wonder why people who wanted a fast-network iPhone didn't switch to China Unicom. The reason is that China does not have phone number portability. So to switch to Unicom you would have to get a new phone number. Since the cell phone is a key expression and embodiment of individuality in China (for instance, for young people, for whom it is still common to live with parents until marriage, your cell phone is often your own true "personal space"), changing a phone number is considered a much more troublesome task than it is here in the US.

So, although it's true there millions with iPhones already on China Mobile, this should indeed generate a lot of business in China from:

-- People who just want the latest thing (that's a lot of folks in China!)
-- People already on China Mobile who have been putting off buying an iPhone until they could get on the fast network (probably not that many)
-- People already on China Mobile with an iPhone who now want to upgrade to use the faster network (many millions, surely). Some overlap in this category with the first category of course. There are definitely millions already on China Mobile with an iPhone 4 who have been putting off buying an iPhone 5 because they have heard talk about an official release for a long time (years, in fact).

So it's rather complicated to explain, but the bottom line is: very very good for Apple, but not as big as you might think without knowing the details.

Click to expand...

this might be the most helpful and informed post in macrumors recent history. its funny how some choose to post speculation based on political agendas and others are willing to explain things with a rational, fact based demeanor. i like how perfectly this post puts to shame the bitterness of some of the others in this thread.

This pretty much confirms the iPhone 5c and 5s are compatible with China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network and TD-LTE 4G network "out of the box," though Apple has not revealed its compatibility until now.

SactoGuy18 said:

This pretty much confirms the iPhone 5c and 5s are compatible with China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network and TD-LTE 4G network "out of the box," though Apple has not revealed its compatibility until now.

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http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

This Apple page has mentioned that iPhone 5S model A1530 and 5C model A1529 have TD-LTE frequency bands 38, 39, and 40 support ever since they went on sale back in September. In other words, Apple has made the compatibility known for three months already. The TD-LTE is currently mentioned in the spec pages, as well.

As for TD-SCDMA, it's not mentioned in the specs, so unless Apple creates a unique model targeting China Mobile, it's probably not supported. I don't think it'll really matter because the ad is pushing 4G (TD-LTE in this case).