Apple and China Mobile 3G iPhone talks on track

Back at WWDC as Steve Jobs ran down the list of carrier agreements for the 3G iPhone one country in particular was conspicuous in its absence. Now Reuters is reporting that one of the biggest obstacles to bringing the iPhone to China has been overcome. A China Mobile spokeswoman told Reuters that "Apple is no longer insisting on a revenue-sharing policy, so the biggest hurdle for China Mobile to bring in the iPhone has been cleared, but there are practical issues still to be resolved."

Apparently the shift towards carrier subsidies, as has happened even with original partner AT&T, facilitated this move as it has basically brought the iPhone into line with other smartphones. Even at WWDC Jobs was confident that the iPhone would arrive in China (and Russia) before the end of the year, and this latest announcement from China Mobile seems clearly to suggest that the iPhone will soon officially be set to conquer the world's largest mobile phone market, well beyond the gray market for the first iPhone.

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Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssWirelessTelecommunication…

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Back at WWDC as Steve Jobs ran down the list of carrier agreements for the 3G iPhone one country in particular was conspicuous in its...

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Me thinks they will get their local Meizu instead.

June 29 2008 at 12:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

StevenBallmer

The Chinese have bought 26 copies of Vista and turned them into 12 million!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

June 29 2008 at 2:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

shanghailoz

One issue not noted here is that China Telecom refuses to sell phones that are wifi capable in China.

Doesn't mean that you can't buy them here in China, but it means that any phones sold would be crippled to remove Wifi access.

iPhone 2.0 won't make much difference to the people in China yet, we'll have to wait for proper mapping solutions, and the Chinese in Email support to be fixed.

Its broken in 1.1.4, hopefully now 2.0 officially supports Chinese, the mail will work in Chinese.

I have about 4 or 5 pre-orders for the iPhone 3G.

Probable price will be same as the previous iPhone - around 3500-4000RMB (6.9RMB = $1)

199$ for iPhone, $250 to get out of a contract, plus shipping and customs fee's = $600 +- locally in China

The only problem with having an iPhone in China is that everyone has one...

June 29 2008 at 12:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Roberto

"Apple is no longer insisting on a revenue-sharing policy, so the biggest hurdle for China Mobile to bring in the iPhone has been cleared, but there are practical issues still to be resolved."
How many points will AAPL drop between today and the day Wall Street gets a hold of this snippet? Remember: all stocks are inflated by speculation of potential future revenues, way above their real value.

June 28 2008 at 1:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Roberto's comment

Chris

1) None, because the market is closed until Monday.

2) None, because AT&T and the other carriers are no longer doing revenue sharing with the new handset, and neither are the other ~60 countries.

3) The stock will go up because China Mobile has a current subscriber base that out numbers the entire population of the US. One percent is 3.6M from one country with a growing middle class and the known desire for the iPhone as a status symbol.

â€¢ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators

June 28 2008 at 4:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply