China Mobile’s chief executive Li Yue confirmed on Thursday that the carrier had added one million new iPhone customers in February. The carrier launched the iPhone on its network in mid-January.
MacRumors reports that the company released these subscriber figures as part of its annual earnings statement, which also included the carrier’s first profit decline in 14 years.
Increasing competition from rivals China Unicom and China Telecom has spurred China Mobile to attract new customers by using its new 4G network, and top of the line devices such as the iPhone 5s.
“We added 1.34 million new 4G users in February and most of them are iPhone users. We are happy with the progress as we are still building our 4G network and the coverage is only available in some major cities,” China Mobile Chairman Xi Gouhua told The Wall Street Journal.
China Mobile is China’s largest wireless carrier, with 776 million subscribers. Analyst believe the addition of the iPhone to China Mobile’s offerings could boost iPhone sales by 15 to 30 million units in 2014.
