Apple's CEO Tim Cook was in China on Tuesday, meeting with two of China's major mobile carriers. He met with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier, a company that does not currently carry the iPhone. He also met with China Telecom, a company Apple does work with, to talk about future products. Recently, Apple has seen a 43 percent slump in sales in China as a whole.
According to Reuters, Tim Cook met with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing to discuss cooperation between the companies. So far, China Mobile has resisted Apple products on their vast network. One hold-up has been the slow adoption of 3G and China Mobile's use of of a homegrown wireless technology.
Mr. Cook also met with Yang Jie, China Telecom's President to also discuss future products. Apple has been doing business with China Telecom since early 2012. That company has a 50 percent adoption of the world-wide 3G standard that the iPhone uses.
China is an important market for Apple and has huge growth potential. That market accounted for 13 percent of Apple's revenue last quarter, but sales have declined recently as China, with the help of low cost handset rivals, seeks to gain more control of its own wireless industry.