(Photo : Apple and China Mobile)

China's more than 700 million China Mobile users will now get the chance to run an iPhone using the network after the country's Telecom Equipment Certification Center gave the final license for Apple's iPhone to run on the world's largest wireless operator.

Like Us on Facebook

While both Apple and China Mobile have not issued a statement regarding the deal, the website of China's Telecom Equipment Certification Center announced on Wednesday that it has issued to Apple a network access license for a mobile phone unit that looks like an iPhone.

The Chinese regulator said the Apple handset was allowed to run on the mobile standards used by China Mobile for third and fourth generation cellular services.

Milestone Deal

The approval by the center marks a milestone for Apple, which has been in negotiations with China Mobile for years, as it attempts to further widen its market reach in the world's biggest wireless market.

Apple already has existing deals with China Unicom and China Telecom. For years, it had declined to make an iPhone for the China Mobile because of the company's rarely used mobile standard. But China mobile is too big to ignore. With its 700 million wireless users, the wireless operator is way bigger than America's largest mobile operator Verizon Wireless.

China Mobile users have also opted to using other units that are compatible with the carrier's network. For the third quarter ending June 29, Apple's sales in Greater China dropped 14 per cent from a year earlier to $4.6 billion.

Apple's China Market Share Dips

Apple's market share in China also dropped to 5 per cent, placing it behind Samsung, Lenovo Group, and Huawei Technologies.

Apple launched iPhone 5C in China on Wednesday, just hours after the launching of iPhone 5S in the United States. But there is a problem and Apple could fail in its bid to build up sales in China. Just moments after the launching of iPhone 5C, Chinese web users immediately criticized the new iPhone unit as too expensive.

The new iPhone, according to Apple's China online store, will sell for CNY4,488 ($733) for the 16GB version, or well above the $549 tag price in the US.