China Mobile, the world’s leading phone company, is set to use a lot of money on subsidies in the coming year as it endeavors to lure its customers to the new speedy service and boost the sale of smartphones by as much as 42%.
The company is planning to sell 220 million smart devices in 2014 as compared to 155 million that was sold this year. Xi Guohua, the Chairman of China mobile indicated this in remarks made on the carrier’s micro blog account. The official China Daily newspaper reported that China mobile is yet to conclude a legal agreement with the Apple Company to sell the iPhone.
Guohua Xi indicated that subsidies for handsets are set to expand from the 27 billion CNY or $4.4 billion that was spent in 2013. The carrier also hopes to get much more of the 759 million customers to the faster network with more expensive voice & data plans.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, China mobile has entered into agreements with handset manufactures Xiaomi Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) to provide smartphones running on the fourth-generation network.
At a developer’s conference in Guangzhou, CEO Li Yue told developers that the 4G service provides a new future and will popularize different types of applications innovations. On December 4th, China mobile got regulatory approval to start commercial services on the 4G network.
The China Daily wrote that Xi indicated that China mobile hopes to conclude the agreement with Apple as soon as possible. Apple, which currently does not make handsets that are compatible with the China mobile’s 3G networks, has agreed to make an iPhone that will run on the 4G network.
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