Apple facing uphill battle in China despite China Mobile deal

The world's largest mobile network is ready to offer Apple's iPhone, but while the US technology giant has declared China its biggest future market, it faces an uphill battle to unseat Samsung Electronics and homegrown competitors.

Majority state-owned China Mobile has more than 760 million customers but for years has declined to provide the iPhone as it argued with Apple over commercial terms.

The country's other big mobile telecommunications operators, China Unicom and China Telecom, already stock the product, and China Mobile will join them tomorrow.

Analysts expect the move to boost the number of subscribers for China Mobile, which was recently awarded a government licence for 4G (fourth generation) services, and lift Apple's iPhone sales in China by millions - but in all likelihood it is far too late for the US giant to take the lead.

Although the iPhone commands fanatical devotion from its Chinese fans, South Korea's Samsung rules the smartphone market with a more than 18 per cent share, according to consultancy Analysys International.

Apple sits in eighth place, with a 3.5 per cent share in the third quarter of last year. Six Chinese companies are ahead of it, many offering cheaper phones using Google's Android operating system.

"The domestic high-end smartphone market is much more diversified and competitive now, leaving users more choices," said Wang Jun, an analyst for Beijing-based Analysys.