Apple iPhone sales on China Mobile slower than expected

By | March 20, 2014

Scalper1 News

The long-awaited debut of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone on China Mobile (CHL), the world’s largest wireless carrier, is off to a modest start. China Mobile, which has nearly 776 million customers, added 1.34 million 4G subscribers in February and “most of them are iPhone users,” company Chairman Xi Gouhua told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The Journal estimated China Mobile has added about 1 million iPhones since it started selling the Apple smartphone on Jan. 17. Analysts have forecast that China Mobile (CHL) ould boost Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone shipments this year by 15 million to 30 million, the Journal said. A survey of analysts by Fortune put the average estimate at 18 million units. Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri said the iPhone sales figures from China Mobile imply “a slightly slower ramp than we expected.” If the ramp remains slow, China Mobile’s iPhone sales will miss the consensus of 5 million units for… Scalper1 News

Scalper1 News