China to account for 15-20% of iPhone shipments next year?

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to a Wall Street analyst, Apple will ship five to seven million iPhones in China during 2010, after striking a three-year agreement with China Unicom. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall estimates that the Chinese market will account for 15% to 20% of Apple's global iPhone sales next year.

China Unicom's 140 million subscribers make it the second largest carrier in the country, only topped by China Mobile, which has 460 million customers. Interestingly, Marshall noted only about half of China Unicom's customers are pre-paid, compared to 80% of China Mobile's.

Naturally, pre-paid customers are of little use to Apple, and the number of post-paid customers the two companies have are on a similar plane. China Unicom has about 70 million post-paid customers, and China Mobile has around 92 million.

China Unicom has been adamantly building its 3G network -- an obvious requisite to host the iPhone. The carrier will begin shipping iPhones in the fourth quarter of this year. On a side note, unconfirmed reports have claimed that the Chinese iPhone will lack Wi-Fi capabilities.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/36020-china-to-account-for-15-20-of-iphone-shipments-next-year.html

 

[Captain828]

minor typo: The carrier will being [...] -> The carrier will begin [...]

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Thanks, fixed.

 

[Guest]

Wait wait... If the iPhones are made in China, then why is Apple shipping them to China??


What monkey wrote this article??

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Shipments as in sales - the number of units distributed. I'm the monkey that wrote this article and it makes perfect sense. Thanks for your attempt at being clever.

 

[red1776]

. I'm the monkey that wrote this article and it makes perfect sense. Thanks for your attempt at being clever.

:haha: yes it does...give'em hell Matthew:wave:

 

[JudaZ]

They may "ship" the iPhone to china.. but how many will be sold? ... possible as many as there where Vista licenses sold in Chine the first 4 months of release ) ... what was it . .5?