While Apple insists that everything is going well in China, it appears that it is in no hurry to get its latest offerings to the country that made them. China was Apple’s big hope particularly after it signed a deal with China Mobile to flog its expensive toys, but that did not go nearly as well as shareholders had hoped. There was a 50 per cent year on rise in China, not bad but nowhere near enough.

Now it seems that China will not be able to buy the new iPhone 6 as part of the first wave of buyers around the world this month. Although the two new smartphone models will go on sale September 19 in the United States and other markets, Apple is yet to set a release date for China, the world's biggest smartphone market. This is odd when you consider when Apple released the iPhone 5s and 5c simultaneously in 11 countries and territories including the United States, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany.

Apple is insisting that it still loves China. A spokesman said that it was still a key market for Apple and we will get there as soon as possible. However Apple has not received a routine certification from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which inspects new smartphones before they are allowed on Chinese carrier networks.

China Mobile's Beijing branch said the launch date had been pushed back from when they had expected, and probably would not be until the end of the year.