Apple Inc. (AAPL): iWay Or The Highway

The most prominent holdout is China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL), the largest carrier in the world. At the end of March, China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) had over 726.3 million wireless subscribers, representing nearly two-thirds of all subscribers among the top three Chinese carriers. Investors have been waiting for years for Apple to hook up with China Mobile, which will hopefully happen later this year. Apple needs to score China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) ASAP, since the longer it waits, the longer rival platforms have to grow installed bases.

NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) (NYSE:DCM) is another major Asian carrier waiting to sign on Apple’s dotted line. Japan’s top carrier has 61.5 million subscribers that Apple could tap into. Smaller rivals SoftBank and KDDI both offer the iPhone, and are using the device to chip away at NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) (NYSE:DCM)’s lead. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recently became the top smartphone vendor in Japan, which is particularly impressive since the iPhone isn’t on the largest carrier and also because Japanese consumers are culturally averse to foreign brands.

Those two carriers alone represent almost 800 million subscribers, a large chunk of the 2.8 billion estimated subscribers that Apple’s missing out on. In contrast, Samsung pursues wide distribution and sells through almost all of the 800 worldwide carriers, according to Asymco’s Horace Dediu. That’s over three times the 240 iPhone carriers.

Time to loosen up, Apple.

The article Loosen Up, Apple originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu, CFA.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and China Mobile.

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