Cheap iPhones to be unveiled in China

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Apple plans to sell low-priced iPhones in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market, through China Mobile. The daily quoted an expert of Apple’s business in China as saying that Apple told Foxconn, a manufacturer of iPhones, to add China Mobile on the list of mobile carriers, which Apple will provide with new low-cost iPhones. But the newspaper said it is not yet known when the cheap iPhone will be unveiled in China.

Apple’s share in the Chinese mobile phone market of 5 percent places the company in the seventh in the market, which is behind Samsung and Chinese brands of Lenovo and Huawei. Releasing a cheap iPhone through China’s biggest mobile carrier China Mobile is expected to boost Apple’s share in the Chinese market. Currently, iPhone5 is sold at 815 U.S. dollars in China. With added sales of 20 million units, however, a new iPhone costing around 400 dollars is expected to push up Apple’s market share by more than 13 percentage points.

According to a U.K-based research firm Canalys, 352 million units of cellphones are expected to be sold in China this year, which is more than twice of America, and 421 million units are expected to be sold in 2015. China became the world’s biggest smartphone market last year.

Apple is expected to release the low-priced model along with its latest next-generation iPhone at an event on Tuesday.