Apple's Asia Breakthrough

As Apple and Samsung rumble for leadership in the global smartphone market, the Korean electronics giant has enjoyed a big advantage. In China and Japan, Asia’s two biggest economies, Samsung had deals with the No. 1 mobile operators to sell its handsets—and Apple didn’t. Despite years of trying, the maker of the iPhone couldn’t win over China Mobile or Japan’s NTT Docomo. The two carriers have 821 million customers combined.

Apple’s Asia handicap may soon be a thing of the past. In Japan, Docomo began offering the iPhone in September. Meanwhile, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s shuttle diplomacy may be about to bear fruit in China. Although iPhones don’t work on China Mobile’s homegrown 3G standard, they do on the LTE technology the operator plans to use for its 4G service, which it will likely roll out by early 2014.