Apple’s decision to hold a near-simultaneous launch of two new iPhone models in the US and China raised expectations of two breakthroughs for the company – a cheaper model to claw back market share in the world’s largest telecoms market, and a long-awaited partnership with the country’s largest mobile phone operator.

But the Beijing launch, just hours after Apple’s introduction of the new 5S and 5C iPhones at its California headquarters, merely reiterated a higher than expected Rmb4,488 ($733) sales price for the cheaper 5C model and shed no light on a potential deal with China Mobile, raising questions about the company’s ability to boost sales in the world’s fastest growing economies.

Apple’s share of the China smartphone market has halved over the past year to just 5 per cent as the company loses ground to arch rival Samsung and a new breed of Chinese upstarts exemplified by the rise of Xiaomi.