China is Apple’s second most important and one of the fastest growing markets. Hence to facilitate and fuel the growth further Apple has now allowed Yuan currency transaction for Apps purchases on the Appstore in China.
Earlier, to shop in the Chinese appstore it was essential for one to hold a dual currency credit card in order to make the purchases. This was causing a lot of genuine consumers to turn away and resort to jailbreaking their iPhones in order to get free apps resulting in a revenue loss to Apple.
Keeping this in mind Apple now has an arrangement with at least 20 banks in China which would make arrangements that would allow customers to make purchases in Yuan.
China has contributed roughly 12% of the total revenue generated by Apple this year. And it’s only a matter of time before China turns into Apple’s largest market. Hence it was imperative for Apple to take steps to ensure the northwards growth.
The next logical seems to be an agreement with China Mobile, which is the largest carrier in China and the world with 900 million subscribers. It already boasts of 10 million iPhone users and we believe that an agreement between the two will be announced with the iPhone 5 early next year.