iPhone 6 gets green light for mainland sales - officially

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iPhone 6 gets green light for mainland sales - officially

Parallel traders to feel the squeeze after US tech giant finally gets the needed certificates

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 30 September, 2014, 2:56pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 01 October, 2014, 9:37am

Andrea Chen and Nectar Gan

Apple sold a record 10 million of the iPhone 6 models in the first weekend after their launch. Photo: Xinhua

Apple's iPhone 6 and the slightly bigger iPhone 6 Plus have finally received approval to be sold on the mainland and will be available from October 17, the US-based technology giant said yesterday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced earlier on its website that the new smartphone models had passed tests and been issued a telecoms network access licence, but only after the company had given assurances about users' privacy and security.

The price of a 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 will be 5,288 yuan (HK$6,670) and the iPhone 6 Plus with the same storage will sell for 6,088 yuan.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said both models would be sold using "all three carriers" at launch, referring to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, and would have access to high-speed, fourth-generation telecommunications networks.

The new models are on sale in 26 countries and regions across the world, including Hong Kong, but the mainland, the company's second largest market, was absent from the first and second waves of the launch.

Apple sold a record 10 million of the iPhone 6 models in the first weekend after their launch.

The ministry initially had concerns that phone users' personal data might be at risk, but the licences were issued after Apple gave assurances that diagnostic software was included in the handsets to detect hardware problems and could not access stored personal information.

Apple has also promised that it would never allow any institution or government to access users' data, the ministry said.

The network access licence is the last of the three permits a new smartphone model needs before it can go on sale on the mainland. State media reported last month that the iPhone 6 had already been issued the other certificates.

Prices of the smartphone already on sale on the mainland before the official launch dropped within hours of the announcement.

The price of a 16 GB iPhone 6 fell by 200 yuan to 5,800 yuan by 5pm yesterday when offered by one vendor in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing, the main district in the capital for buying phones and other electronic goods. The price of a 128 GB phone at the store dropped about 500 yuan to 7,600 yuan.

The vendor quickly managed to sell 40 iPhones in stock.

"It's better to sell them before the price dives further. Everyone is trying to get rid of them as soon as they can," he said.