China Mobile iPhone Deal Could Score Apple An Additional $10 Billion Per Year
by Joe White
December 4, 2013
The anticipated launch of Apple's iPhone with China Mobile could score the Cupertino, Calif. company an additional $10 billion per year in revenue, according to one analyst.
The news comes after a pre-registration Web page (pictured above) suggested that the largest carrier in China, which itself is the world's largest smartphone market, will offer the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c from Dec. 18.
China Mobile has more than 740 million subscribers, and talks of an iPhone deal have been grinding out of the Apple rumor mill for some time - since 2009, in fact.
It goes without saying that this huge subscriber base renders China Mobile a lucrative carrier for Apple, but up until now nobody was quite sure precisely how lucrative such a deal would be.
After crunching the numbers, Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets anticipates that the launch of Apple's iPhone with China Mobile would result in the company securing between $9-10 billion per year in additional revenue, adding around three dollars per share to the company's stock.
The news reached us from AppleInsider, which explains:
Those estimates are based on a forecast of 17 million iPhone sales, with a conservative average selling price of $560 per unit and 30 percent operating margins.China Mobile is indeed a behemoth of a carrier: compared with its 740 million subscribers, rival carriers China Unicom and China Telecom have just 454 million customers combined. The publication adds: "Daryanani believes the addition of China Mobile could increase Apple's market in China by 1.8 times. He noted that total number of 3G subscribers in China continues to grow, with a sequential increase of 16 percent in the September quarter." China has already officially licensed the iPhone with China Mobile’s wireless network, and both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c support the carrier’s TD-LTE wireless band. This TD-LTE network is set to launch on Dec. 18 also, according to the Chinese government's official press agency. Besides scoring Apple huge revenue, a China Mobile iPhone deal would of course help the Cupertino, Calif. company's meagre share of China's smartphone market grow. One report has even indicated that it could double by 2014 off the back of a China Mobile deal. We'll keep you updated with further information as we receive it. In the meantime, see: Update For OS X Mavericks Reaches Developers, Further Improves Mail, Tilt To Live 2: Redonkulous Updated With New Old School Mode And Sensitivity Slider, and Google Could Bring Chrome Apps To Apple's iOS From Next Month.