China’s regulators give final approval to iPhone 6, set for launch October 17

Weeks after the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus first went on sale, Apple’s newest phones finally have full approval from China’s regulators. The last remaining rubber stamp comes from MIIT, which has approved the devices after analyzing both the hardware and iOS 8.

(Update 3 hours after publishing: Apple has just confirmed its China launch for October 17 for both iPhone 6 variants, arriving on all three Chinese telcos. That’s the same date as for India. Online pre-orders in China begin October 10. We’ve updated the article’s headline with this new information.)

While Apple will be relieved that it has not had to wait months for approval, as happened for several of the early iPhone models, it’s remarkable that China’s IT ministry gave the nod, rather than the TENAA, which is the body that usually grants approval for telecommunications equipment.

As indicated by the wording of MIIT’s approval, the iPhone received a heightened security check that included scanning iOS 8 for “back doors” that would leak Chinese consumers’ information to a foreign government, such as to the US. This involved “interviewing Apple Corp” about possible vulnerabilities in iOS 8. Apple promises MIIT than neither Apple itself nor any government can exploit any aspect of iOS 8 to retrieve user data.

IDG News’ Beijing correspondent Michael Kan, who noticed the MIIT release and tweeted about it, points out how unusual it is for MIIT to intervene:

Maybe first time China's MIIT has explicitly posted about a phone getting a network access license. Gov't concerned about iPhone security

— Michael Kan (@Michael_Kan) September 30, 2014