China Mobile releases contract, unbundled prices for new iPhones

China Mobile, the country's largest telecom operator by subscribers and the latest to jump on the bandwagon to sell Apple's iconic smartphones, unveiled its prices on Wednesday for the upcoming gadgets that clinch its partnership with Apple.

Just like its two smaller rivals - China Unicom and China Telecom, which have been selling the iPhones for quite some time - China Mobile has two offers - buy the gadget without a contract or buy it bundled with a two-year telecommunications services contract.

The price tags set for the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C without any contract are the same as that charged by Apple, going for at least 5,288 yuan ($874.64) and 4,488 yuan. The contract-free version of the gadgets sold in the US start from $649 for the iPhone 5S and $549 for the iPhone 5C.

The contracted version with a two-year plan comes in at a starting price tag of 5,488 yuan for the iPhone 5S and 4,688 yuan for the iPhone 5C.

But the company revealed no further details about the monthly installment for the two-year contract plan.

The detailed plans will come out soon, as shipments of the gadgets are scheduled to begin Friday, a customer service staffer with the Beijing branch of China Mobile's 10086 hotline told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The long-rumored deal between Apple and the telco was announced on December 22, 2013, signaling the inception of a multi-year agreement officially starting from Friday.

"This is a watershed day," Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is Beijing for the Friday launch, was quoted by CNBC as saying on Wednesday.

The telco's joining the iPhone battlefield has put China Unicom and China Telecom under pressure.

The two smaller telecom carriers have reportedly lowered prices for their two-year contract plans, with China Unicom slashing its original price tag for the 16-gigabyte iPhone 5S by 800 yuan to the current 4,699 yuan, and China Telecom cutting the price to 4,800 yuan from 5,288 yuan.

The initial response to China Mobile's price policies seems hardly encouraging for the telco. As of 22:30 Wednesday, 83.8 percent out of 6,067 respondents in an online poll by information portal sina.com.cn thought the contract plans were unreasonable, and 75.3 percent stated they are not going to buy China Mobile's version of the iPhone 5S.