Hasta La Gadget!

On January 27th, after the markets close, Apple is going to announce its fiscal Q1 2014 results. Analysts have already started predicting what the figures are going to be, Fortune collected data from 44 analysts, all of them estimate that at the very least Apple was able to sell 50 million iPhones in the previous quarter. Predictions obtained from 27 professional and 17 independent analysts reach a consensus on 55.3 million iPhone units, which results in a 16 percent growth in unit sales as opposed to the same quarter from a year ago.

Apple may have been aided by the popularity of its two new iPhones, the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. Both smartphones were widely available in the previous quarter, not to mention the fact that the holiday season also came in between, which is usually a time when sales experience a significant boost. Scott Craig of Merrill Lynch is actually the most bullish of all the professional analysts, he predicts that Apple might have sold as many as 58.5 million iPhones, whereas Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest plugs the end with a prediction of 50.93 million units. It will be interesting to compare these figures with units sales from the current quarter, when it ends in a couple of months, as in this quarter Apple has finally begun selling its iPhones on the world’s largest mobile carrier, China Mobile. Even the pre-orders are said to be in multi-millions.

Apple Might Have Sold At Least 50 Million iPhones Last Quarter original content from Ubergizmo.

Well, it had to happen, and there definitely was not going to be any two ways about it – the world’s largest smartphone market, China, deserves cranking out the iPhone 5s as well as the “budget” iPhone 5c. China Mobile’s partnership with Apple has been described by Cupertino’s CEO to be “incredibly optimistic”, and it has been reported that China Mobile themselves have prepared more than a million iPhone 5s units at launch. Right now, China Mobile stands proud as the world’s biggest mobile network with 760 million subscribers, so to see them begin to sell both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c today would be interesting – once the sales figures have been tabulated, that is.

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China Mobile Begins To Sell New iPhones Today original content from Ubergizmo.

The much rumored deal between Apple and China Mobile was confirmed last month. We had been hearing for quite some time that both companies had been negotiating, at one point it was also rumored that Tim Cook flew down to China in order to meet with the carrier’s top brass. They’ve both finally reached an agreement which will see the world’s largest mobile carrier launch the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on January 17th. It may have a lot of iPhone 5s units on hand to cope with demand, rumor has it that Foxconn has delivered a shipment of 1.4 million iPhone 5s units to China Mobile last week.

Foxconn is Apple’s primary manufacturer of the iPhone, sources with knowledge of the plans claim that they don’t know what the order volume for China Mobile will be after January. This particular order is meant to cater to demand following the launch on China Mobile. The carrier has more than 750 million subscribers, and analysts expect Apple to sell up to 20 million units on the carrier alone in 2014. China Mobile has already started taking pre-orders for the new iPhones, it finally launches them on January 17th. The deal could help Apple’s market share in China surge from six percent, the company’s smartphones are under a lot of pressure from Samsung’s devices, and those made by local Chinese vendors.

China Mobile Reportedly Has Over 1 Million iPhone 5s Units At Launch original content from Ubergizmo.

After much negotiation and speculation, Apple and China Mobile have finally struck up a deal in which Apple’s iPhones would be officially offered on the carrier’s network. The deal with China Mobile would basically give Apple access to about 750 million subscribers and while Apple might not be able to get everyone to hop aboard the iPhone bandwagon, it has been estimated that Apple might be able to sell an additional 12 million iPhone units come 2014 and according to the latest reports, Apple is well on its way as China Mobile has managed to secure 100,000 iPhone pr-orders in a matter of 2 days. Granted this is a slightly smaller figure compared to China’s other carriers, such as China Unicom and China Telecom that have netted 120,000 and 150,000 pre-orders back in September, but we suppose given that the other two carriers have had a head start, perhaps the demand could be slightly less.

In any case these are just some early numbers and perhaps in the long run China Mobile might overtake the competition. Either way with China Mobile being one of the largest carriers in the world, the fact that Apple has managed to sign on nearly all of the major carriers in China is no small feat and will definitely help to boost iPhone sales in 2014. Will the next-gen iPhone see even more spectacular sales come 2014? We can only imagine that it will, but in the meantime it looks like Apple’s expansion into Asia is going ahead as planned and appears to be doing quite well to top things off.

China Mobile Sees 100,000 iPhone Pre-orders In 2 Days original content from Ubergizmo.

While it has been rumored that Apple and China Mobile have been in talks, an actual date of when the deal would close has never been revealed, albeit rumored. One of the reasons is apparently due to lower than expected iPhone 5c sales, but in any case it looks like the deal has gone official, according to a press release sent out by Apple not too long ago. Both companies have announced that they have managed to close the deal on Sunday and for those in China under China Mobile’s network, those customers can look forward to getting their hands officially on an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c come January 17th 2014.

However China Mobile has allowed customers to pre-register their interest by either heading on over to their website or by calling its customer service hotline. According to Tim Cook, “iPhone customers in China are an enthusiastic and rapidly growing group, and we can’t think of a better way to welcome in the Chinese New Year than getting an iPhone into the hands of every China Mobile customer who wants one.” Apple’s deal with China Mobile is expected to increase the number of iPhones sold, with analysts estimating an additional 12 million units for 2014, although with China Mobile’s subscriber base numbering over 750 million, perhaps those numbers could be higher. Either way it looks like Apple has managed to score with some of the largest carriers in the world, especially after landing a deal with Japan’s NTT DOCOMO earlier this year.

Apple And China Mobile Deal Is Official, iPhones Arriving January 17th original content from Ubergizmo.