Apple Inc’s iCloud services on the Chinese mainland will be operated by a local company from Feb 28, as part of the United States tech giant’s broader push to meet local consumers' growing demand for cloud services.

Apple said on Wednesday that its iCloud service will be operated by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd, an enterprise owned by Guizhou's provincial government.

The move is the latest step in the deal Apple announced in July that it would invest 1 billion U.S. dollars in new data centers in Guizhou province in China.

“This change will allow us to continue to improve the speed and reliability of our products while also complying with newly passed regulations that cloud services be operated by Chinese companies,” Apple said in a statement.

In a period of seven weeks starting from January 10, the company will send emails and push notifications to its Chinese customers, notifying them of the change.

“Users in the Chinese mainland can choose to opt-out of using iCloud. And if a user is not a Chinese citizen residing in the mainland, they can correct their Apple ID country or region setting,” Apple added.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn