The iPhone 6 will be sold in China from October 17, after rigorous regulator scrutiny led to Apple Inc reassuring the Chinese government that the smartphones did not have security “backdoors” through which US agencies can access users’ data.
Apple won approval to sell the phones after also addressing risks of personal information leaks related to the operating
#system’s diagnostic tools, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on its website yesterday.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were released on September 19 in the US and elsewhere, but regulatory delay meant Chinese consumers had to wait. The initial lack of a China launch date caught analysts by surprise because of Apple’s repeated comments about the importance of the world’s biggest smartphone market.
Apple and other American technology companies have been subject to greater scrutiny in China after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden last year revealed spying and surveillance campaigns, including programmes that obtained private data through US technology firms.
In July, Chinese state media accused Apple of providing user data to US agencies and called for ‘severe punishment’. Apple responded by publicly denying the existence of backdoors.
The notice of approval for the iPhone 6 could potentially mark the ministry’s first for a specific smartphone, suggesting Apple is subject to more scrutiny than its peers in a year in which the US tech giant will release a new phone on all three of China’s major mobile networks for the first time.
Apple sold a record 10 million iPhone 6 handsets in the first weekend after launch, which excluded China
The MIIT said it conducted “rigorous security testing” on the iPhone 6 and held talks with Apple on the issue, and that Apple shared with the ministry materials related to the potential security issues.
One of the concerns the MIIT raised was over a third party’s ability to take control of a computer that had been given trusted access to the phone by a user. They also queried Apple on the ability of staff repairing iPhones to access user data through background services.
Apple told the MIIT it had adopted new security measures in its latest smartphone operating system, iOS 8, and promised that it had never installed backdoors into its products or services to allow access for any government agency in any country, the MIIT said.
Apple earlier last month was hiring a head of law enforcement in Beijing to deal with user data requests from China’s government, after it began storing private data on Chinese soil for the first time.
With regulatory approval from the world’s largest smartphone market, analysts expect the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to sell well in China, where many people prefer phones with larger screens.
The three China’s state-owned wireless carriers had more than 1.27 billion mobile subscribers in August. Apple sold a record 10 million iPhone 6 handsets in the first weekend after their launch, which excluded China. Last year, the US tech firm sold 9 million iPhone 5S and 5C models in 11 countries, including China, in the same period.