The long-anticipated launch of Apple's iPhone on China Mobile kicked off today with a little help from its friends.
CEO Tim Cook joined China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua at a Beijing Apple Store, where the two handed out autographed iPhone 5s and 5c devices to excited customers.
"Having fun in Beijing at the iPhone launch with China Mobile!" Cook tweeted, alongside a photo (above) of the executives surrounded by press and their product.
Apple and China Mobile inked a deal in December, bringing the flagship iPhone 5s and its cheaper 5c counterpart to the world's largest mobile network's more than 763 million subscribers.
"What this partnership does is, it allows us to take the iPhone to a different level in China," Cook told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday, according to a transcript published by the Wall Street Journal. "This is a new product, this is a world phone."
The iPhone will be compatible with China Mobile's TD-LTE (Time-Division Long-Term Evolution) network, but also work with the FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplexing Long-Term Evolution) network in the U.S.
Six years in the making, the move could provide the sales boost Apple needs to keep up with rival smartphone manufacturer Samsung. According to Cook, Cupertino already sold a record number of iPhones in the Greater China area in the last quarter, though he did not reveal specific numbers.
Cult of Mac tipped 1.2 million pre-orders since Dec. 25, or about 60,000 per day—huge growth from the 100,000 pre-orders the carrier received in the first two days.
"China Mobile already has a reach to many cities that Apple does not have a reach to," the CEO told reporters this week. "You will see over time Apple going to more and more cities and this is something that China Mobile's skill and know-how and distribution network will be an enormous assist to us."
For more, see PCMag's review of Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, and the slideshow above.
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