"Both China Unicom and China Telecom have been benefiting from selling the iPhone products, as it has boosted their 3G services, and the iPhone serves to generate more user data traffic compared to other smartphones," Li Yanyan, an analyst at market research firm Analysys International, told the Global Times Sunday.

More than 50 percent of China Unicom's 3G data traffic has been driven by its subscribers using an iPhone, according to Li, who noted the upcoming iPhone 5 launch will continue to be a boon for Apple's two partners in the mainland market, especially China Telecom, which appears to be moving faster than China Unicom in introducing the new gadget for the mainland market.

China Telecom began selling the iPhone 4S in March, becoming the second carrier in the market to offer iPhones.

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