For long, Apple had only one official carrier for its flagship smartphone in China. Recently, Apple was able to finally break a deal with China Telecom and get it on board. Now, iPhone 4S has officially launched with China Telecom, the carrier booking 200,000 pre-orders for the smartphone ahead of the actual launch.
The sheer number of pre-orders speaks of the immense popularity of Apple’s iPhone 4S. With the smartphone now debuting with China Telecom, we can expect a significant boost in Apple’s sales in China. The device launched with China Telecom on Friday and is now available with 2850 outlets of the carrier in China.
Another very significant bit is that China Telecom has been taking pre-orders for only one week for the launch. So all of these 200,000 pre-orders came in within that one week. 10,000 of these came from Beijing alone while 20,000 were from Shanghai.
It is important to note here that Chine Telecom is the third-largest wireless carrier in the country with a total of 117 million subscribers. 28 million of these subscribers already use the 3G service of the carrier. So while the pre-orders seem very promising and the carrier has announced that the initial sales of the device are overwhelming, we can expect this to rise to millions within no time.
If you are in China, you can get an absolutely free 16GB iPhone 4S from China Telecom for a two-year contract starting at $62 monthly plan. It may sound pricey but the bright side is of course the free smartphone. However, the data plans of China Telecom are said to be better than the rival carriers, offering more free minutes and text messages.
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