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"The tech giant just got a whole lot bigger! Apple has joined forces with China Mobile, the world&amp;#039;s biggest mobile company, to bring the iPhone across China starting January 17, 2014 with preordering available as of December 25. &amp;quot;Apple has enormous respect for China Mobile and we are excited to begin working together,&amp;quot; Tim Cook, Apple CEO said via a press release. &amp;quot;China is an extremely important market for Apple and our partnership with China Mobile presents us the opportunity to bring iPhone to the customers of the world&amp;#039;s largest network.&amp;quot; Apple has been interested in a partnership with China Mobile for quite some time. The mobile carrier, however, only started to share that interest when they realized they were losing customers to competitors that offered the iPhone. The partnership offers Apple 763 million potential new customers, and the company is already reaping benefits in the U.S. with a 3% increase in their market shares. Despite signs of success, winning those new customers over will not be an easy task. While Apple may produce the most popular smartphone in the world, the iPhone is only the fifth-most purchased phone in China. Their lack of popularity is mostly due to their model costing more than other phones, such as the Android. Apple has not yet revealed how much iPhones will cost for China Mobile customers, but the iPhone 5S is currently listed as $871 for other carriers. So far, analysts forecast that the new deal could result in 20 to 30 million iPhones being sold in 2014. Do you think this is a smart move for Apple? Share in the comments below. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/news/a48126/apple-and-china-mobile-partnership-to-start-next-year/>