iPhone6 Sales Greenlighted In China

The Chinese government is officially allowing Apple to start selling the iPhone 6/6 Plus in China after extracting a privacy promise from Apple “that it would never allow any country or government agency backdoor access to its devices or user data,” according to a report Tuesday (Sept. 30) in The Financial Times.

On Tuesday (Sept. 29), China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued Apple the network access license it sought.

“Chinese regulators don’t move to the march of Apple,” said Duncan Clark at BDA, a Beijing consultancy, according to the story. “In China, things can be a bit different because regulators want to show their power.”

The story noted that many anticipated that, had Beijing not granted the sales permission, Chinese shoppers would have swarmed to buy the products from Hong Kong merchants where it’s already selling. Even with the new license, Apple said it wouldn’t start selling in China until Oct. 17.

Apple would clearly have rather gotten matters resolved sooner. “China’s week-long National Day holiday – a peak period for shopping and tourism in the world’s second-largest economy – begins on Wednesday (Oct.1),” the Financial Times reported.