Apple Inc. (AAPL) taking a bite out of Samsung’s China territory

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) revealed a significant jump in China Mobile’s January 3G subscriptions compared to the previous month, which was due entirely to new sales of iPhones by the Chinese telecommunications titan. According to the information that Apple provided to its investors in the past few hours, China Mobile clocked 7.4 percent monthly growth in wireless phone service subscriptions, a 25 percent jump over December’s figures. Coming hard on the heels of China Mobile’s January 17th launch of iPhone sales, these numbers show the vigorous commercial potential of Apple smartphones in the “Middle Kingdom.”

China has long been viewed as “Samsung territory,” with the market dominated by sales of the Korean electronic company’s Galaxy telephones. However, aggressive expansion by Samsung’s American rival is now driving a wedge into this relative monopoly. Indeed, iPhone 5S sales began to accelerate in the last months of 2013, even before China Mobile started retailing the devices. Samsung maintained a leading position with 19 percent of the vast Chinese market in 4Q 2013, but Apple edged up to fifth place with its 7 percent market share in the same time period.

Today’s confirmation that subscribers are eager to purchase iPhones through China Mobile is a significant leading indicator of further successes for Apple Inc. in the near future. China Mobile is the largest telecommunications company on the planet, with 760 million subscribers, so capturing even a small fraction of that pool of potential customers would enable Apple to harvest a huge bounty of profits. Rumors suggest that 2 million iPhones were shipped to China Mobile to cover January sales, with more to follow for February and subsequent months.

Forrester Research, a market analysis firm, forecast that approximately 17 million iPhone activations could be expected in 2014 as a result of the deal. Further gains are possible when China Mobile carries out a massive expansion of its 4G wireless network across China, aiming first at the major population centers of the country. With 1.35 billion people within its borders, the Asian nation represents a huge market for any consumer electronics maker, and the new pact with China Mobile is a potentially very lucrative feather in the cap of Apple Inc., and a keystone of its future commercial strategy.

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