14 DAY TRIAL // A Chinese newspaper on Friday said that Apple’s upcoming iPhones won’t be arriving in the country until November 28, three months from now.
The reason cited in the First Financial Daily report is that the phones haven’t received approval from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the equivalent of the FCC in The States.
The paper notes that both the high-end iPhone 5S and the cheaper iPhone 5C are being equipped with radio chips designed by Qualcomm to be suitable on Chinese networks, specifically China Mobile’s network.
Apple and China Mobile have been in discussions to strike a deal to have the new iPhones deployed on the carrier’s 700-million-subscriber network.
The CEOs from both companies have met on a couple of occasions this year, and the latest such meeting seems to have materialized in a deal to finally carry the iPhone.
Apple is expected to launch both phones at a special event on September 10, followed by a rollout in key markets around the globe.