Dallas, Texas 12/04/2013 (Financialstrend) – Very recently, Fortune.com reported that the largest mobile phone carrier in the world, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) has commenced taking preorders for Apple iPhones. Apple is seeking to expand into China, which is the biggest market after the U.S. the company is making every effort to offset the slowdown in revenue growth in the developed markets that are extremely competitive and saturated as well. Just like its rival, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) has been struggling to sustain its growth and has been signing-up new users much faster. Apple dropped to No 7 in the Q2 in China, with a market share of 5% and lost ground to Samsung as well as Lenovo Group and ZTE Corp, its local rivals.
Representatives for China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) could not be reached to comment on that report and Apple declined commenting. Towards the end of October, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) had placed an ad for the faster 4G mobile-network on its company website. This raised expectations that the long-awaited Apple distribution -deal is in the offing.
Apple has spent several years in trying to finalize the deal with China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL), and company executive have made a number of visits to the Beijing headquarters of the state-owned carrier. It has consistently told the carrier how important the Chinese market is to them. China is a massive market and offers a vast opportunity for sales and profitability, with its estimated 740M + potential buyers who subscribe to China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) services. However, the negotiations have been very tricky. This is partly because there have been certain disagreements over various details such as revenue sharing is what analysts are saying.
In Tuesday’s trading session, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) rose by 0.24% to close at $53.75. The company has a market capitalization of $216.08 billion.
