Apple's New iPhone 12 Supports China's Beidou System

Beidou, US GPS Rival Satellite System... 10 Trillion Won Invested in China's Development
iPhone Officially Supports Beidou for the First Time

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Apple's new iPhone 12 supports China's satellite positioning system, Beidou (北斗).

Beidou is a satellite system independently developed by China to compete with the U.S. GPS (Global Positioning System).

On the 15th, Apple announced on its website's iPhone 12 device specifications section that it supports Beidou in addition to GPS as a positioning system.

This is the first time the iPhone officially supports Beidou.

With this decision by Apple, a leading American technology company, Beidou, which has mainly been used in China, is evaluated to have gained an important foothold to expand into overseas markets.

China has been developing the Beidou project since 1994 to build an independent civilian and military satellite positioning system that does not rely on the U.S. GPS.

China has invested over 10 trillion won and launched a total of 55 Beidou satellites by June, sequentially expanding the service coverage from China (Phase 1 Beidou, 2000), Asia-Pacific region (Phase 2 Beidou, 2012), to the entire world (Phase 3 Beidou, 2020).

The Beidou system has been widely distributed in the Chinese market under the full support of the Chinese government.

According to China Economic Weekly, about 70% of smartphones in China already support the Beidou system alongside GPS.

Amid escalating U.S.-China tensions, Apple's start of supporting Beidou, symbolizing China's 'space rise' strategy, is interpreted as Apple placing great importance on the Chinese market.

Lin Baojun, Deputy Director of the Satellite Innovation Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, warned at a press conference hosted by the State Council in August, saying, "Supporting the Beidou system is inevitable," and "Otherwise, the iPhone 12 will be miserably left behind."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.