China Mobile Claims 7.4 Million iPhone Users, and a TD-LTE iPhone Agreement

An iPhone 4 using its 3G. So it's not on China Mobile's network, then. (Image source: Apple.com.cn).

China Mobile has wheeled out its H1 2011 results, and amidst all the financial data it also revealed how many iPhone users it has – and a tentative agreement for a TD-LTE iPhone deal.

First, China Mobile’s chairman Wang Jian-zhou (pictured below) said that his network has 7.44 million iPhone users on its GRPS/2G network. That’s a lot of users considering that China Mobile is not even Apple’s official partner for the iPhone in China. All those will be unlocked iPhones; a good many will be grey-imports from Hong Kong or other countries.

On the down side for China Mobile, all those 7.44 million iPhone-toting subscribers are using the cheaper, slower 2G network, which can cost as little as 5 RMB (US$0.78) per month for just a few dozen MBs of data.

China Unicom is Apple’s preferred partner in China, being the only Chinese telco that supports the WCDMA 3G frequency. Its 3G data plans start at a pricier 66 RMB ($10) per month for 300MB of data.

Second, Chairman Wang also revealed that China Mobile has indeed been in talks with Apple about becoming an iPhone carrier – and revealed that there is an unofficial consensus for the two to cooperate on a TD-LTE 4G iPhone. Mr Wang said that he has met Apple’s iconic CEO, Steve Jobs, on numerous occasions.

China Mobile chairman Wang Jian-zhou.

This was something we speculated on back in June, when Apple’s COO Tim Cook was spotted – though there was no sign of Mr Jobs – trotting through the reception of China Mobile’s Beijing HQ.

Sadly for China Mobile, there’s no likelihood that the upcoming iPhone 5 will support 4G networks. And even if the new device does, China’s TD-LTE infrastructure is far from ready. Only this spring did a limited testing of a 4G network get under way in a few cities. We’ve also seen some China Mobile branches being told to prep employees to sell iPhones in its stores.

As for China Mobile’s H1 2011 earnings, it reported 250.1 billion RMB in revenue, which was up 8.8 percent over H2 2010. To find out about the financial results from other Chinese tech firms for the quarter take a look here.

[Source: QQ Tech News – article in Chinese]