Apple’s iPhone will support China Mobile's fourth generation (4G) network in the future which will raise Apple’s iconic status among 600 million customers, a report from the company said.

China Mobile's chairman Wang Jianzhou, in his report, said both China Mobile and Apple have reached a mutual understanding regarding the development of a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) which will primarily focus on the 4G technology that will allow mobile devices to exchange data faster. When the device will be released in China with a 4G support, it will also feature China Mobile’s version of the technology known as Time-Division Duplex (TDD).

Apple and China Mobile have been in discussion since 2007 but are yet to reach an agreement. Most of the discussion has highlighted the Chinese company’s 3G technology called Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). If Apple wants to sell an iPhone in the country for China Mobile, the company will have to rebuild the phones to make them applicable for the carrier’s TD-SCDMA 3G network.

China mobile is yet to offer an official iPhone in its Smartphone sector which has given its rival China Unicom an edge in the market. China Unicom has more than 170 million subscribers and is the only Chinese carrier to officially retail Apple’s iPhone.