China Mobile in talks with Apple over iPhone

Bringing the iPhone to Europe was big, but potentially bigger for Apple is the Chinese market, which probably explains why China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is in talks with the company over its much publicized handset. Mr. Jianzhou admitted in a speech at the GSM Association's Mobile Asia Congress that he doesn't like the revenue sharing agreements that Apple has managed to wrangle: you and every other mobile executive worldwide, Wang! But who knows, maybe the fact that China Mobile has 349.66 million subscribers will be enough for Apple to make one two very big exceptions and do a more traditional deal. Whatever happens, the Chinese market is likely to throw some curveballs at Apple's usual pitch.

[John @ Nov 13th 2007 9:23PM]

How many people in china could pay for an iPhone and the service plan?

[yoyodude64 @ Nov 13th 2007 9:26PM]

only the big company execs? but thats who it would b targeting anyway. an iphone is 400 in US, and more in Europe...o boy i dont wanna c a price on the chinese version. pretty soon the illegal tech exports will run the other way, with us selling the chinese our iphones cuz they dont wanna pay the 800 bucks when we can charge them 500? 2 bad u can only buy 2 at a time now...and not with cash...

[joe23521 @ Nov 13th 2007 9:38PM]

You have no idea how much money young people are willing to spend on cell phones in China. They would spend a couple months' salary on a phone without thinking twice. They'll probably sell more iPhones in China the first week than they've sold in the rest of the world up to that point.

[r19578 @ Nov 13th 2007 9:46PM]

Last year Nokia sold over 10 million high end handsets in China

[r19578 @ Nov 13th 2007 9:50PM]

Sorry, it should be 1 million.

[seanchk @ Nov 13th 2007 10:51PM]

In China you have to understand that status is everything, Hong Kong is the same, people will spend almost anything to have the latest gadget. I want an iPhone because its a cool phone, my desire for it however has diminished because its becoming quite common here (its still not officially available) so I won't get as much attention now as I would have had if I'd had one a month or more ago.

Nothing beats being the first person to pull out a new gadget and showing it off everywhere you go.

[Ken @ Nov 13th 2007 11:22PM]

I bought a Beijing-made K-Touch phone for $200 to use in Shanghai that does many of the things the iPhone does. However, young Chinese consumers were swarming the floor full of mobile stores, buying $400 to $500 phones. There are even iPhone Fan books for sale in China that are nothing more than all the ads jammed together into a coffee table book for people who hope to buy one. I don't think Apple will have much trouble selling in China.

[ray @ Nov 13th 2007 11:47PM]

chinese are gadget nuts, they might not be rich, but they are definitely nuts. i have a friend who bought an iphone no few days after released in the US for $1200. if you never been to a mobile phone market in china, you have no idea how they sell them. the one i've been in Shanghai is a five story building full of mobile phones, looked like a refugee warehouse. and you can find any mobile phone there, even the "useless" Japanese ones.

[complex @ Nov 14th 2007 12:46AM]

Many many Chinese people will buy iPhone, John.
There is a ultra huge market.

[twentynothing @ Nov 13th 2007 9:34PM]

You rich Americans will be surprised.

[Tony @ Nov 13th 2007 11:34PM]

Suprised at what? How is this even a comment?

[derX @ Nov 14th 2007 2:17AM]

Yeah, I'm with Tony, what does that even mean?

A comment is relevant to the post, even if just tangentially so. For example:

Wait, isn't it law for manufacturers to use the miniUSB connection for phones in China? If this is the case, which I am pretty sure is, this would really piss of the Jobster. First they have to sell unlocked iPhones in France, now phones with miniUSB ports in China.

What next? A fully open platform? Baby steps here, baby steps.

[ukickmydog (NDF - Earth) @ Nov 13th 2007 9:38PM]

lol, communism

[paul34 @ Nov 13th 2007 10:05PM]

lol, ignorance

[David @ Nov 13th 2007 10:08PM]

Ignorance indeed.

[RIMM Jobs @ Nov 13th 2007 9:43PM]

我愛蘋果

[derX @ Nov 14th 2007 2:28AM]

*goes to online translator*

Hrm, apparently you love the Apple, Mr. RIMM Jobs.

Lovely.

[dizilbdog @ Nov 13th 2007 9:47PM]

Please Don't Apple. They are going to put us in a full recession any day now. They don't need any more products. Thanks

[David @ Nov 13th 2007 10:05PM]

Yes, it's definitely "their" fault we love maxing out our credit cards, taking out home equity for vacations, and spending our weekends at the mall. Yup, you sure got it.

[dizilbdog @ Nov 13th 2007 10:08PM]

You do that dumbass not me. I hate the mall and unfortunetly any product I buy well it comes from china anyways it's a lose lose situation. As well apple products uhm they come from china as well. Any Ideas?????????

[David @ Nov 13th 2007 10:15PM]

Yes it's definitely unfortunate we have a choice of low-priced goods in an era of stagnating wages. It's definitely unfortunate that our inflation is kept in check by said low-priced goods despite the Fed's presses flying off the hook pumping out Dollars. Yes it's unfortunate our Govt is propped up from bankruptcy due to China recycling it's trade surplus into buying our debt.

[Adrian @ Nov 13th 2007 9:52PM]

There's better alternatives to the iPhone.

[Ashraf @ Nov 13th 2007 9:59PM]

yeaaahhhh!!! the Meizu phone thing lol, they dont need the iPhone...

[David @ Nov 13th 2007 11:33PM]

Seriously, I went back to China this winter on a trip and saw my uncle with this really beautiful Aigo phone.

In China, Apple is:
1. Too Expensive
2. Too simple
3. And with that simplicity, too ugly

Seriously, in China Apple is no big deal and not a trend like it is in the US. Everyone in China buys alternative 国产 crap because it is cheap, it looks better, and it's made in China by Chinese companies.

[JAmerican @ Nov 13th 2007 10:09PM]

Wow I really don't get why foreign countries pick up the iPhone when they had such tech years ago. I mean 2MP over there is what you put on a child's camera. Wow it has touch oooo. If you ever look at the iPod rip-offs, they are better than the iPod. So I would assume any phone other there would just be better than the iPhone altogether.

Please leave me Low Ranking Apple and iPhone fanatics. :)

[Fant @ Nov 13th 2007 10:23PM]

People dont buy the iphone for its features. They buy it for its design.

[LordFarkward @ Nov 13th 2007 10:30PM]

i'd agree with pretty much every you said, except for your assumptions which are extremely bad ones. i mean the assumptions about the child's camera, that the touch isn't a big deal, that the rip off's are better, and that any phones are better. ok fine i agree with nothing but the fact that you're getting low ranked.

i'm no apple/iphone fanatic, though i am very much a common sense fanatic. here's your low rank vote.

[danny @ Nov 13th 2007 10:43PM]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't China Mobile part of the Open Handset Alliance for Google Android? Wouldn't this seem... almost the complete opposite of open?

-D
http://www.androidboards.com

[ethana2 @ Nov 14th 2007 12:59AM]

I hope Android crushes mobile windows and OSX. I won't buy a smartphone until I control the software, and I pick the service, all independently.

[t @ Nov 13th 2007 11:07PM]

Check out this iPhone clone!

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5179

[Paul @ Nov 13th 2007 11:08PM]

I'm as big an Apple Fanboy as anyone - but sooner or later all of this 'negotiating' and pissing off every TV/Music/Phone exec. is going to bite Apple in the a$$. Sure... they are making some incredible products and can get more than most other companies.... but I don't want to see the day when they fall - there were will be execs lined up to spank them.

[huggles @ Nov 13th 2007 11:52PM]

"Designed in Cupertino" -- "Assembled in China"

Well this way Apple doesn't have to ship O/S, they can just cut the middle man and the phone suddenly becomes very affordable. I'm being facetious =D

I can think of a few issues here tho. The first surrounds the data plans/rates and the second is privacy concerns re open application development.... ? What stops someone from developing an encrypted chat program or point to point/proxy or web based application etc? Things could start to get interesting. if you were a Chinese dissident wishing to communicate with friends this could be feasible.

[Eric @ Nov 14th 2007 1:08AM]

There's a N95 ad in my condo's elevator (Beijing) and you see other nseries everywhere you bother to look. Few people seem to have any idea it's a smartphone so maybe the iPhone would be perfect. Easy to show off and simple. Sure the PRC is notorious for the CECT jank but you dont actually see a lot of that when you're out.

[Michael @ Nov 14th 2007 1:11AM]

ChinaMobile, no way!
That God damned mathrf*kr allways ship us low quality phones with high price, and even expensive service of shit.
The carriers of China haven't get the EDGE online. We can buy an iPhone(8G) from the black market for about 4000RMB(about $530), and use the GPRS for $1.38/Mbytes, $67.29/month for unlimited data(call fee are not included).

So, who cares.

[Jamar @ Nov 14th 2007 3:48AM]

Excuse me? Unlimited data plans can be had in Shanghai (with EDGE) that cost less than half that. The only explanation I have for your erroneous info is that every province operates differently, and the local division where you are prefers to gouge you all.

[Constable Odo @ Nov 14th 2007 1:59AM]

50% of China will be using iPhones by the year 2010. 500,000,000 give or take a few iPhone users can't be wrong. Nearly every household in China will have an iPhone, a new iMac and a couple of iPods. Sales will increase exponentially. First words out of a Chinese baby's mouth will be "Apple".

That should give Apple a share price of about $900 and market cap of about 1 trillion dollars, surpassing Microsoft and ExxonMobil by a wide margin.

Apple becomes the new Microsoft and Steve Jobs the new Bill Gates. Yup, the Apple New World Order is falling neatly into place and it's about time.

It'll be a frickin' iPhone sort of multinational world united under Steve Jobs.

WAAAKE UP!!!

[WM1984 @ Nov 14th 2007 3:57AM]

I've no idea if the author is trying to make a joke, but Jianzhou is not his family name. Wang is.

[Wangsta @ Nov 14th 2007 4:22AM]

Are you kidding me, almost all of the 350 million Chinese subscribers will be able to afford an IPHONE. There are no two year contract in china, no free phone, everyone paid $300-$1000 for their cell phone. $400 cell phone is china is quite cheap actually.