Talks between Apple and China Mobile squelched... or are they?

Barely a fortnight after Apple began talking with China Mobile about getting the iPhone into the ginormous Chinese market, it seems that negotiations are off -- or still on, or something. Yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported that China Mobile's CEO felt that the "iPhone model was not suitable for China," but unnamed reporters suggested that the real reason behind the call-off was the inability for both entities to agree on -- surprise, surprise -- a revenue sharing model. Today, however, a report over at Bloomberg notes that Apple has in fact not ended discussions with China Mobile, and moreover, it was said to have "denied newspaper reports" claiming otherwise. 'Course, we've got two sides of the story here, and while Apple may feel that there's still room to negotiate, China Mobile may see things quite differently. Time will tell, we guess.

[Via Macworld]
Read - Nanfang Daily report
Read - Bloomberg report

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 30th 2007 9:22PM]

I heard negotiations faltered when they wouldn't let Steve Job's boat into Hong Kong harbor...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 1st 2007 1:41AM]

I guess the Chinese will have to stick with the virtual iphone http://vphone.red-rome.com for now. Too bad it only comes in English.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 1st 2007 12:30AM]

Hell, China's already got enough knock-offs of the iPhone. Why should we give them license to the real deal? Let them try to be innovative on their own. Oh, wait, lead in a cell phone is probably more hazardous than in a toy.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 1st 2007 1:12AM]

"�the iPhone model was not suitable for China, �"

I guess the real reason for this is the jailbreak/3rd-party-app mess� Probably China Mobile wanted to install 3rd-party apps on all the iPhones it would sell (should Apple grant it the rights to sell the iPhone), and Apple did not agree on this. Or, China Mobile knows that Chinese users would want to run 3rd-party apps on their iPhones, but also that Apple would not accept this.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 3rd 2007 9:00AM]

Exactly- all of the unlocked iPhones selling in China right now come jailbroken. China Mobile knows its uers will expect the same from the official iPhone and also knows that Apple won't stand for it.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 2nd 2007 7:40PM]

Likelihood?
The People's Republic of China wants a larger cut of iPhone sales. Apple won't budge. (Note: PRC has a controlling stake of China Mobile)