The iPhone 6 may be on the verge of officially going on sale in China, according to a top government regulator speaking on Tuesday.
As one of Apple’s most promising markets (which may one day even overtake the U.S. in terms of sales), the disappointing lack of iPhone 6 in China was the result of Apple incurring challenges receiving regulatory approval from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Last week it was reported that Apple was halfway to receiving approval — having sorted the necessary documentation for the iPhone 6’s use on domestic frequencies, but still requiring one other “critical license,” which it has apparently now agreed.
“The iPhone 6 has entered the final stage of the approval process, now it’s just a matter of time,” MIIT chief Miao Wei told Tencent said Tuesday during an interview in Beijing.
He declined to give a time frame for completion of the review, but said a result should be announced “very soon” and that people should “please wait patiently.”
This isn’t the first time Apple has had disagreements with the Chinese government. The Chinese media previously accused Apple of using both iCloud and the “Find My iPhone” function to spy on its citizens, while Apple was recently made to move iCloud in China over to state-run servers.
In the absence of the iPhone 6, gray market handsets were reportedly retailing for around 7x their cost in the U.S.
Source: Reuters
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
