14 DAY TRIAL // If there was any doubt that China Mobile was going to carry the elusive iPhone, new evidence comes in the form of a job advert on Apple’s China web site which seeks an engineer with TD-SCDMA know-how.
Bloomberg reports that “Apple Inc. wants to hire an engineer with extensive knowledge of China Mobile Ltd.’s homegrown phone network, evidence it’s moving toward an agreement for the world’s largest carrier to offer the iPhone.”
The job advert is for a manager who will be based in Beijing and will “support and drive the carrier approval of mobile phones.” The new recruit needs experience with TD-SCDMA, a wireless standard used exclusively by China Mobile.
Apple’s deal with China Mobile to finally carry the iPhone is a massive one. The operator reportedly detains 63 percent of the country’s 1.2 billion wireless subscribers, or about 700 million users.
If even a quarter of those buy an iPhone, Apple (and China Mobile) will be swimming in cash the next fiscal quarter.
China Mobile’s press office confirmed to Bloomberg that the two companies were actively discussing cooperation, but said “there is no information that can be disclosed.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook is known to have flown twice to China this year. Both visits were made with the purpose to talk to the black suits at China Mobile about a potential agreement to offer the iPhone on the operator’s network.
The iPhone is on demand in China, especially the Gold version of the high-end iPhone 5s, which Apple is having trouble manufacturing at a high-enough rate.
The iPhone 5c, seen as a lower-end version of the iPhone (but still priced fairly high), is proving to be less popular than Apple and analysts alike had anticipated.