China Telecom announced yesterday that it will sell Apple's iPhone 4S bundled with a service contract in China from next month, becoming the second wireless operator to cooperate with Apple on the popular smartphone.

Yang Xiaowei, deputy general manager at China Telecom, said the operator's version of the smartphone will "bring a huge surprise" to the users, according to a company statement yesterday.

China Telecom, the country's third-largest wireless carrier by number of subscribers, said it would take online orders for iPhone 4S from March 2 and begin the sales on March 9.

But the details of the service contract will not be disclosed till March 2, a staff from the company, who did not want to be named, told the Global Times yesterday.

China Telecom aims to boost its growth through the cooperation with Apple, which will help the carrier attract more high-end users.

"It is very hard for China Telecom to emulate the success of China Unicom, because the smartphone market has become mature and customers have many choices now," said Gong Chao, an industry advisor at Beijing-based Adfaith Management Consulting.

Moreover, cheaper smartphones around 1,000 yuan($158.7) are flooding the market and are likely to dominate the sector in the end, said Xiang Ligang, a telecom expert and CEO of telecom portal cctime.com.

China Unicom was the first carrier to cooperate with Apple from 2009 on iPhone in China. The iPhone business has helped the carrier build a strong high-end customer base and establish a good reputation.

Obviously, both carriers see iPhone as a good device to attract users. Their biggest rival China Mobile, the country's biggest carrier by user base, has also been reported to be in talks with Apple on iPhone sales. But its 3G mobile standard, TD-SCDMA, is not compatible with the current Apple device.

China Mobile offers better services and coverage which has earned it a good reputation among Chinese customers, said Ji Chendong, a senior IT consultant at KPMG China.

"The current market share of the three carriers will not change in a short time," Gong said.

China Unicom sells the iPhone 4S with 16G memory at a 5,880 yuan package, according to the operator's website.