iPhone 4S Coming to China Telecom in March

China Telecom announced Tuesday that it will start offering the Apple iPhone 4S on Friday, March 9.

Pre-orders will start a week before, on March 2. The device will be available in China Telecom stores and online at 189.cn.

Pricing will depend on the mobile plan selected, as well as the storage capacity of the iPhone 4S.

Those who select a two-year China Telecom contract and a $62 per month plan, for example, can get a free 16GB iPhone 4S. Those who sign up for a three-year contract on the same plan can get the 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB iPhone 4S for free. More details are in the chart below.

"We are really happy to offer the amazing new iPhone 4S," Yang Xiaowei, executive vice president of China Telecom, said in a statement. "We believe iPhone 4S on China Telecom's advanced 3G network will create great excitement among our customers."

Apple started selling the iPhone in China via China Unicom in November 2009. Back in August, there were reports that Cupertino had also inked a deal with China Mobile, but the carrier is now the only Chinese provider to not provide the iPhone, Bloomberg noted.

When the iPhone 4S launched on China Telecom in January, customers were so eager to get their hands on the new smartphone that fights broke out between shoppers and scalpers and Apple was forced to temporarily shut down its Beijing store.

China is now a major market for Apple. During an appearance at a recent Goldman Sachs conference, Apple chief Tim Cook said the company has "had incredible success with the iPhone" in the region. In the last few years, Apple earnings there have gone from nothing to $13 billion, "so we've really been focused on trying to understand that market," he said.

The Mac, meanwhile, grew over 100 percent year-over-year last year in China, he said.

It's the iPad that Apple might have to worry about now in China. At issue is a December ruling in favor of Proview, which secured the rights to the iPad name in China 2001. Although Apple bought the rights to use the iPad name in Taiwan in 2009, Proview still retains the right to the name in mainland China. As a result, there have been reports in recent weeks of iPads being pulled from shelves throughout China, though Apple is reportedly fighting back.

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