Operators subsidize mobile phones for iPhone

Recently, China Mobile has updated its push operators for the Hong Kong version of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. The Hong Kong version of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c can natively support China Mobile’s 3G and 4G networks and bid farewell to the previous A/B card activation. In addition, as China Mobile will officially launch iPhone5s and iPhone5c this week, it will cause China Unicom and China Telecom to compete to lower the iPhone contract price.

China Mobile upgraded the operator's version Yesterday, China Mobile updated the operator for its users, updating the operator version from 15.5 to 15.6. After the update, the Hong Kong version iPhone 5s natively supports 3G and 4G networks. This shows China Mobile’s strong rapprochement with iPhone users. Moreover, with China Mobile increasing its promotional efforts on the iPhone, China Telecom and China Unicom are also following up. The price war between the three major Chinese operators in iPhone sales is about to re-emerge again. The most significant sign of the outbreak was China Telecom’s increase in sales subsidies for the iPhone.

Telecom China Unicom's contract price fell by more than 400 yuan According to China Telecom's promotional promotional materials, China Telecom has reduced the contract price of the iPhone 5s from the original 5288 yuan to 4488 yuan, a decrease of more than 15%, but the decline is not consistent across regions. Last week, China Telecom Beijing announced that it would cut the contract price of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in full. Individual users would buy iPhone 5s and choose a 189 yuan file package to drop 800 yuan, and choose a 289 yuan file to drop 1,288 yuan. In Guangdong, China Telecom reduced the iPhone 5s contract price from 5288 yuan to 4888 yuan, a slight decrease than Beijing, but Guangdong Telecom sharply reduced the price of the iPhone 4S contract package, from 3299 yuan to 2888 yuan, and contains a large amount of phone bill subsidies .

China Unicom, which originally had the advantage of iPhone cooperation, had to cut prices. Recently, Guangdong Unicom also reduced the iPhone 5s contract price from 5,499 yuan to 5,099 yuan.

One of the reasons why China Telecom and China Unicom slashed the price of the iPhone contract is that the Spring Festival is approaching to stimulate consumption. Also related to China Mobile version iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c will be on sale on January 17, telecommunications may want to use this to contain China Mobile.

However, due to the fact that mobile 4G networks are still not perfect and have a limited appeal to users, the mobile version of the iPhone has been slow to get on. According to statistics, the number of mobile iPhone subscriptions in the first two days was 100,000. In contrast, after China Unicom launched the iPhone subscription in September this year, its subscription volume was approximately 120,000, and China Telecom’s bookings were booked. It is about 150,000.

Agency predicts that China Mobile may lose 10% profit this year

A survey believes that in the next few years, Apple will benefit from the growth of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom's 3G/4G subscribers. Last year, iPhone sales in China are expected to reach 35 million, which is still in the case of Apple and China Mobile did not reach a cooperation agreement. If you count China Mobile, iphone sales are expected to reach 50 million units this year. Before moving to become Apple’s official partner, there were 15 million iPhone users on China Mobile’s network.

The resulting negative effect is that increasing subsidies will affect the financial performance of the three major operators this year. Some investment bank analysts believe that although China Mobile will start selling the iPhone to drive the market, only mobile phone subsidies will increase by 5.3 billion yuan to 36.8 billion yuan, affecting the profitability performance.

Citigroup and Mizuho Securities also predict that China Mobile’s net profit will fall by 10% this year, of which 7% will be affected by the increase in mobile phone subsidies. In the first 9 months of the previous year, China Mobile’s profit margins began to decline due to competition with telecommunications and Unicom, which may be the first time that annual profits have been shrinking since 1999. Unicom and Telecom also experienced a significant drop in profits in the early days of the introduction of iPhones.