iPhone 6 launch in China is unlikely this month

The much-anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus were officially unveiled yesterday morning, but surprisingly, the countries and regions where they will be launched simultaneously worldwide on September 19 do not include mainland China. According to The Paper, Apple officials said: "The mainland China market is very important to us, and we also want users to use the phones as soon as possible, but there are many details we cannot disclose."

After the iPhone 5s was first released in China last year, Apple, which has been relying heavily on the Chinese market to maintain growth, had no reason to let it go. Therefore, even scalpers did not expect the iPhone 6 to be absent.

According to 36Kr, the marketing department of the operator has prepared a lot of publicity and marketing work for the first launch of iPhone 6. Previously, third-party channels including Tmall have received notifications from the operator that iPhone 6 will go on sale on September 19.

Even after missing the first launch, the pre-order page on Apple's official website once showed that the iPhone 6 would go on sale in mainland China on September 26, but this page was quickly adjusted.

After two rumors of "early leak angered Apple" and "Apple and operators renegotiated subsidy levels" were spread for a while, the truth gradually came to light. The lack of a network access license became a stumbling block that restricted the iPhone 6 from entering China in the first place. According to the First Financial Daily, "The difficulty in obtaining a network access license has delayed the release of the iPhone 6... At least it will take until the end of the month to obtain the license."

An internal employee of an operator revealed to 36Kr that the originally simple network access license encountered the FDD license problem. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was very dissatisfied with China Unicom and China Telecom for devaluing TD-LTE in their publicity. The operators turned a blind eye to the publicity, so the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had to take a one-size-fits-all approach.

Yesterday morning, Apple's press conference showed that iPhone 6 will be a terminal that supports all TD/FDD-LTE frequency bands. However, according to the revelation on Weibo, the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are "all domestic 4G mobile phones must be soft-shielded FDD, and unlocking and promotion are prohibited before the official commercial license is issued... After the license is issued, it must be unlocked according to the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and private release of unlocking methods is prohibited." The conditions for issuing FDD licenses are "more than 100 million TD users, and the proportion of TD-LTE of the three major operators must not be less than 60%."

It seems that the leadership is very determined! Xu Gang, deputy general manager of China Mobile's marketing department, said at the end of last month that the number of China Mobile's 4G users is currently 30 million. There is still a gap to the goal of 100 million. If you can't wait, why not get a China Mobile 4G number first?

From this point of view, the possibility of getting a licensed iPhone 6 this month is basically non-existent.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.