Apple Inc is on the verge of clinching agreements with two of the biggest holdouts to selling its iPhone, China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) and NTT DoCoMo Inc, opening a route to hundreds of millions of new customers.
Ahead of an event on Sept. 10 to unveil new iPhones, Apple and China Mobile are near a deal for the world’s largest wireless carrier to offer the device, said a source, who asked not to be identified citing privacy concerns.
Apple is also close to an agreement to distribute its handset through Japan’s largest mobile carrier, NTT DoCoMo, sources have said.
Photo: EPA
Any final deals will bust loose at least 800 million new consumers for the iPhone, with China Mobile boasting 740 million subscribers and NTT DoCoMo about 62 million, data released by the carriers show. Those would be welcome customers for Apple, which is combating slowing sales growth for its flagship product amid competition from Samsung Electronics Co and makers of cheaper handsets.
“This is a very big deal for Apple,” said Brian Marshall, an analyst with ISI Group in San Francisco. “Apple’s iPhone growth has really slowed down.”
The agreements would end years of negotiations where the carriers balked at Apple’s terms, including the costs of subsidies needed to make the iPhone affordable for customers. Apple is set to reveal a lower-cost iPhone on Sept. 10, a source said.
Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple in Cupertino, California, declined to comment on China Mobile on Friday. Zhang Xuan (張軒), a Beijing-based spokesman for China Mobile’s parent company China Mobile Communications, did not answer calls.
“We’re not the source of information and nothing has been decided at this point,” DoCOMo said on Friday.
While Apple is preparing to a ship a lower-cost iPhone to China Mobile, a deal will not be announced at Apple’s Sept. 10 event, or at a follow-up event in Beijing on Sept. 11, a source said. It is unclear if a DoCoMo agreement will be announced on Sept. 10.
China is one of Apple’s largest markets, yet sales there fell 14 percent last quarter as new local smartphone vendors like ZTE Corp (中興) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) took market share by offering lower-cost alternatives to the iPhone.
China is playing an increasingly important role in the global smartphone market, with sales there exceeding combined US and Western Europe sales, said Linda Sui, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.
In the December quarter, China Mobile may order 5 million iPhones, then 40 million more next year, according to Marshall.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Standard Chartered Taiwan on March 26 announced that it has partnered with international fintech firm FinIQ to build an “Automated Structured Products Pricing Platform.” The bank is also introducing products from global issuers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays PLC and BNP Paribas SA. The new platform enables an end-to-end process whereby it finds the most competitive pricing across multiple issuers in a matter of minutes, followed by automated documentation and transaction execution, which significantly shortens time-to-market and delivers a superior wealth management experience. Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan CEO Anthony Yu (游天立) said: “Standard Chartered is increasingly leveraging its wealth management
RSS