Oops, 73% China Unicom iPhone Users From China Mobile

Further to our previous post on China Unicom’s new aggressive strategy to attract more 3G users, we did another quick study of what’s happening between China Unicom and China Mobile on the 3G+iPhone war.

1. According to a stats which is said from Apple but no yet approved, ~73% of China Unicom iPhone+3G contract subscribers are China Mobile’s users, and 35%-38% of them say they are going to use both number for another 6 months. Li Gang, VP of China Unicom recently told a Chinese media, because you need give a contact number when you sign the iPhone contract with China Unicom, they know over 80% of the contact number are from its competitor.

2. According to a report from China Unicom, the ARPU value for GSM 2G user is around rmb39.8 per month, rmb134 per month for its 3G user, but for its iPhone+3G user, it’s around rmb260 per month. China Unicom right now claims it has over 1 million iPhone contract users who actually bring rmb260millions per month.

3. China Mobile is still quite strong, but it has started suffering the loss of monthly new subscribers. 5.428 millions new subscribers in August this year, in September the figure is down to 5.401 millions, and in October, it’s 5.259 millions!

4. For sure iPhone 4 has boosted China Unicom’s 3G market, Li Gang admitted it, but he also commented, only 10,000 iPhone4 have been sold by Apple Store so far.

So China Mobile must be on Fire. Started from early November, China Mobile offers its users free SIM-cutting service, and then set up a hotline giving its users instruction how to use iPhone on China Mobile.

It’s lucky China Unicom get WCDMA and iPhone, but it does not mean there is nothing they should worry any more. Improving its network coverage and performance is still a must-do, otherwise, nobody can guarantee that people will stay after 2-year iPhone+3G contract is finished.

[image via pcpro.co.uk]