Talks with China Mobile fail over who can sell apps
Talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in the Chinese market have stalled again, according to Interfax -- this time over the fact that China Mobile wanted to sell iPhone apps directly to customers, rather than through the App Store.
A source in the Interfax story said that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou said that buying extras for mobile phones is different for Chinese customers, since many are accustomed to using prepaid credits rather than a credit card. Wang said that China Mobile would have to play some part in providing apps to customers, if only to fulfill this payment scheme.
China Mobile's "application shop," announced in November, would have sold apps for not only iPhones, but for Symbian- and Linux-based phones, too. Apple obviously wanted to sell iPhone apps through iTunes, as it does now all over the world.
Wang declared to Apple that "China Mobile should operate the application store itself in order to maintain its advantage."
It's unclear what this means for the future of the iPhone in China. China has other carriers, like China Unicom, and the lengths that Apple has gone to to please China Mobile might be reason enough to look for another partner. Rumors last year suggested China Mobile demanded an iPhone with a reduced feature set that some analysts later predicted could be the iPhone nano.
[Via MacDailyNews.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lee said 4:20PM on 2-09-2009
"China Mobile should operate the application store itself in order to maintain its advantage."
No, China Mobile should operate the application store to ensure Apple doesn't get a cut of the money and they can regulate (read: censor) what gets put there.
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Maldaen said 10:20PM on 2-09-2009
Actually, as the App Store varies region to region, China is more than able to regulate the content of the App Store, all Apple has to do is set up a screening process for anything to enter the Chinese storefront, and then... problem solved.
TylersPage.net said 4:34PM on 2-09-2009
Who THE HECK CARES?????????? We're all going to die anyway eventually. It's stupid to start commenting on some random piece of crap, or to post pointless stories on POINTLESS computer companies that rip you off and charge you 80 bucks for STUPID FREAKIN HEADPHONES!!!!!!! Everybody can kiss my butt!
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PSN: HinchyFC said 6:20PM on 2-09-2009
...what
David owens said 7:17PM on 2-09-2009
what are you blabbering about?
bjbroderick said 5:03PM on 2-09-2009
...A source in the Interfax story said that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou said that buying extras for mobile phones is different for Chinese customers, since many are accustomed to using prepaid credits rather than a credit card. Wang said that China Mobile would have to play some part in providing apps to customers, if only to fulfill this payment scheme....
uh, they can't use itunes cards like everyone else? It's all about the censorship..
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zoffdino said 5:24PM on 2-09-2009
Ah, China, where everything must be state-controlled.
Apple should just unlock their cell phones and sell it for $599 in China. Enough people will flock to their stores to buy it. The iPhone is like a status symbol in China. Consider that the early adopter paid $1000+ for the 1st iPhone, the public should be happy to get it at $599.
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David owens said 7:17PM on 2-09-2009
do not give the chinese anything except chop sticks. Nothing.
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VanillaSpice said 7:54PM on 2-09-2009
what are you blabbering about?
Imagine Engine said 8:09PM on 2-09-2009
China Mobile should not have control over Apple's App Store for it's customers. For one thing this would take away from the user experience other Apple iPhone customers enjoy as well allow the carrier to censor apps from specific developers because it doesn't meet China's status quo. This demand that the carrier is placing on Apple is just as ridiculous as the one where they wanted Apple to cripple the iPhone 3G to not allow it to use WIFI.
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Steven said 11:26PM on 2-09-2009
As a Uk-expat in China, I call BS on China Mobile's motives, same as several other commentators have. Sure, they want a cut (sorry, 100%) of app profits, but moreover they want control - not necessarily censorship, but certainly the full grasp of control.
Apple should just sell it unlocked. There's already an App Store for China (just apps, not a full iTunes store), and enough middle-class/income Chinese can easily pay 600 to 800 bucks for the iPhones, and they already have credit cards (visa, mastercard, mainly) which they can use on the Chinese App Store.
Seems Apple is also too obsessed with having full control, and getting sustained revenue from contracts.
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Maldaen said 12:21AM on 2-10-2009
This is worse than the demands NTT-DoCoMo had in Japan. What some carriers in other parts of the world need to understand is that Apple actually wants a phone that works EXACTLY the same no matter what region of the world you're in, and making carrier-specific concessions completely degrades this concept.
I think that Apple would be better off partnering with China Unicom and stealing China Mobile's marketshare in the process by having the most-desired tech device in the country on their network.
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Maldaen said 12:29AM on 2-10-2009
One other advantage to abandoning China Mobile: it gives Apple a second carrier to offer iPhone with in Hong Kong, with dirt-cheap Hong Kong-to-mainland roaming costs being Unicom's largest selling point for many people on the island.
Jeff Lyndon said 12:35AM on 2-10-2009
well, from what I read in China Mac forum and news site the problem is not only App selling right. China Telecom is currently pushing a new 3G standard TD-SCDMA (iPhone uses WCDMA). China Telecom demanded Apple to add TD-SCDMA into iPhone which turn Apple even further.
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NinjaTickets.com said 8:17AM on 2-10-2009
I get that there are some advantages to the asymmetry of TD-SCDMA, but seriously implementing a 3G network in 2009 is a bit ridiculous shouldn't they be focusing on 4G tech like the US and the rest of the world?
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Eric said 4:50AM on 2-10-2009
I wonder how they proposed paying the developers the cut of the apps they would sell. I'm not sure I would take their word on how many times my app was sold.
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gloomy said 1:03PM on 2-10-2009
china mobile is right on who can sell more apps. less then 5% of the china population actually have a credit card, the majority of china mobile users are not even on monthly plans, near 80% of the users are on pre-paid. allowing the users to buy apps from their pre-paid account will definitely be easier then getting them to sign up credit card then buy off itunes. not to mention, most of the china mobile users don't even have a computer at home.
either way, china mobile doesn't really care if they sell iphone or not. they already have over 300 million subscriber. apple is the one that really want to get into the market and have a share of the pie
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Maldaen said 9:24PM on 2-10-2009
Then there are alternatives that could be discussed that do not appear to even be on the table, such as Apple providing tools to China Mobile users to convert their pre-pay credits into a monetary value on an iTunes Store account, or finally allowing iTunes gift cards to be used to purchase apps (which is something that I, as a Canadian, do not get the privilege of enjoying, same with PayPal purchasing). If Apple is able to offer other ways to provide apps beyond a credit card in the US, they can do it in China, as well. So it's China Mobile trying to control Apple's revenue stream when it has no place doing so.
Like I said, they should just steal business from China Mobile by getting Unicom to carry it.