Mobile Phone News

China Mobile negotiating with Apple to carry iPhone

By Will Park on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 2:34 pm PST In Announcements, Apple, China Mobile, iPhone

China Mobile in talks with Apple to bring iPhone to ChinaThe largest wireless operator in China, nay, the world, is reportedly in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to the 350 million end-users that China Mobile calls its subscriber-base. We already know the iPhone will be hitting the Asian-region in 2008, so it makes sense for China Mobile to court Apple for exclusive rights to the iPhone.

China Mobile’s CEO, Wang Jianzhou, has confirmed that they are negotiating with Apple. However, the Chinese carrier is a bit reluctant to give up iPhone revenue to Apple - a kick-back model that Apple has forced all iPhone carriers to obey. Says Wang, “We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers, the end users.”

Sure, China Mobile has the subscriber-base to make demands, but will Apple give in to these demands? Precedence would dictate, no. Afterall, revenue sharing from a potential pool of 350 million customers is just way too enticing for Apple to pass up.

[Via: iPhone Central]

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5 reader comments on “China Mobile negotiating with Apple to carry iPhone”

  1. China Unicom to carry the Phone too? says:

    [...] Unicom is a CDMA carrier and the iPhone relies on the GSM technology; 2) We’ve already posted China Mobile may be the carrier for the iPhone. Though the latter doesn’t confirm nor deny [...]

  2. Welker’s Wikinomics Blog - for students and teachers of AP and IB Economics » Does Apple have a chance? says:

    [...] China Mobile negotiating with Apple to carry iPhone [...]

  3. Apple calls off iPhone negotiations with China Mobile? says:

    [...] bottom line. The two companies have reportedly called off iPhone negotiations that started up just last month. It seems that the issue at hand was the revenue-sharing model that Apple has demanded from all [...]

  4. Apple considering bringing iPhone to Thailand? says:

    [...] Apple’s China-bound iPhone aspirations reportedly on the ropes (or not, depending on who you talk to), it makes sense for [...]

  5. Ramos R. says:

    i don’t know why… china has phone better than iphone .. aka iphone clones… the Digitalrise D99i shake iphone is the hottest phone there: http://www.chinagrabber.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=174

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