Apple's future in China

It was pretty much an open secret that Apple would be unveiling its new iPhone 6 this week. The company might not have made any official statement, but that didn't stop cellular carrier China Mobile from taking preorders, notching up 33,000 on the first day alone even though no one actually knows when the device will be available for delivery or indeed what new features it has.

Nonetheless, with a smartphone market share of 11 percent, Apple is still trailing well behind Samsung, which boasts 34 percent. But it's by no means the market leader. In the last three months, Chinese tech giant Xiaomi sold 15 million devices, thereby becoming the country's top seller of smartphones. Now, the company has its sights set on a global breakthrough. Meanwhile, other Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Lenovo and Huawei are also closing in on Apple and Samsung in China.

Key cooperation

Begun early this year, the cooperation between Apple and China Mobile amounts to a last resort for the American company. Until now, it was unable to become market leader because iPhones were sold on the Chinese market exclusively by rivals China Unicom and China Telecom. Thanks to a partnership with the uncontested market leader in China, this should now change. 700 million Chinese have mobile phone contracts with the company, making it the world's leading mobile communications provider.

In fact, recent years were not great ones for China Mobile. It lost a sizeable chunk of the mobile Internet surfing market, the most significant development in the whole sector. Its weakness was always the disappointing 3G system for high-speed mobile Internet, with market shares crumbling ever since the dawning of the 3G era. With a share of 60 percent, China Mobile still dominates the Chinese mobile services market. But in the 3G market, the company had a market share of just 46 percent.

Attracting customers with high-speed 4G

The fact that the cooperation with Apple was only sealed this year is primarily due to Chinese telecom regulators, who insisted China Mobile adhere to a special Chinese transmission standard with its 3G system even though its rivals adhered to the international standards used by Apple smartphones.

But China Mobile's fortunes are now changing.

The company is still paying a high price for the mistake it made with 3G and made sure not to repeat it in the development of its new, even faster, high-speed 4G system. This time, China Mobile also has the authorities on its side. Most recently, China Mobile operated over 400,000 4G mobile communication base stations in China, therefore providing services to some 300 cities in the country. The company hopes to be providing over 50 million 4G users with mobile services by the end of the year, leaving its rivals standing at the post.

The end of Western dominance?

With the rapid development of the new system, China Mobile is well-positioned to win back some of the customers it lost. Apple is well aware of this, and made its current model compatible with the high-speed 4G Internet. China Mobile can look forward to launching the newest generation of the iPhone and attracting customers with new mobile service contracts. Clearly, however, this is no guarantee of the company's long-term success. These days, the smartphone market is subject to different laws in China than in Europe or the US.

There will be mixed feelings at Apple about the launch of the new iPhone. No doubt the device will do well in the world's biggest market, securing the company new record sales. But at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, everyone will have to come to terms with the fact that its models are losing ground. What happens in China sets the trends for the rest of Asia - which, in turn, determines world market shares. Quite possibly, the end of western dominance in the smartphone market could be approaching.

DW columnist Frank Sieren has lived in Beijing for 20 years.