Apple CEO, Tim Cook visits China for second time in less than a year
Apple Inc's Chief Executive Tim Cook is meeting with partners and government officials in China on his second visit to the firm's second-largest market in less than a year. China is Apple's fastest-growing market, with the maker of the popular iPhone and iPad opening a raft of retail stores last year. Last month, Apple sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in the country in just three days, the company's best ever smartphone launch in the country.
Despite the roaring success of iPhone sales in China, analysts say the company's longer-term outlook in the market may hinge on expanding its partners to include China Mobile Ltd , the country's top telecoms carrier.
"Tim is in Beijing meeting with government officials and partners. China is an important market for us and we look forward to continued customer excitement and growth here," Apple's spokeswoman in China Carolyn Wu said on Wednesday.
She declined to say whether or not Cook would be meeting with China Mobile executives.
In China, the iPhone is currently sold through Apple's seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom - which together have fewer than half the
mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile. A deal with China's biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improving Apple's distribution in a market of 290 million users.
Apple has been in talks on a tie-up with China Mobile for four years.
China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue - as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G
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