The recent launch of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on China Mobile is causing a ripple effect across the mobile industry in China. Competitors, fearing that China Mobile—the world's largest wireless carrier—may steal customers, are starting to drop prices. Until now, China Unicom had a strong foothold in China because it, and China Telcom, were the two only carriers to offer the device.
According to ECNS.CN, a Chinese news source, China Telecom recently cut the price of the 16GB iPhone 5s by 800 yuan ($132), provided that it was purchased with a two-year contract and a minimum plan of 189 yuan a month. Another device on a 289 yuan monthly place was cut by 1,288, ECNS.CN said. The goal is to incentivize customers to buy iPhones from China Telecom instead of from China Mobile. So why was the decision made?
According to research firm Wedge Partners, 100,000 iPhone units were pre-ordered by China Mobile customers in just two days. That's not as many pre-orders as noticed by China Telecom and China Unicom when the iPhone first launched, but it's impressive considering the iPhone 5s was already on the market and most adopters likely already picked one up.
So far, the iPhone 5s has proved to be the more popular model in China, despite original predictions that Apple's iPhone 5c would cater best to Chinese consumers.
