iPhone 5 Does Not Support TD-SCDMA - Macquarie

27 Sep 2012

Macquarie says there has been some news on various blogs/weibo/Chinese news websites that the iPhone 5 supports China Mobile's (0941.HK) 3G TD-SCDMA.  "However, after a close look at iPhone 5 specs released by technical sources we believe iPhone 5 cannot support TD-SCDMA at the hardware level in its current configuration."  The house says although iPhone 5 does not offer TD-SCDMA support in its current specification, China Mobile is still able to support users on its 2G and wifi network, and it expects smuggled phone users to be the main users on China Mobile's network (so China Mobile does not need to subsidize the handset).  Macquarie expects China Unicom (0762.HK) and China Telecom (0728.HK) to both offer the phone officially in China, with Unicom likely to launch slightly before Telecom. It keeps China Mobile at Neutral with a HK$76.00 target. CM is up 0.5% at HK$85.75.