China Mobile has announced that it will not be involved in the China launch of Apple's iPhone, after talks broke down on Monday. The deal discussions have appeared stalled for some time, although no reasons were given for the decision: "We can only say that negotiations have ended for now. We have no other news to report," said Li Honghui, Spokeswoman for China Mobile Communications, the country's largest mobile operator.
Rumours persist, however, that China Mobile and Apple could not agree
on revenue sharing terms, and that the Chinese company was unwilling to
accept Apple's request for a 20 to 30 per cent share of user fees from
future iPhone users.
Some analysts have predicted that China’s second mobile operator, China
Unicom, could seek to tie up a deal for the official launch of the
iPhone in China – although illegal pre-set iPhones are widely available
across the country.
Apple normally prefers to cooperate with one exclusive partner, but its
options are significantly reduced after China Mobile walked away from
the table. China Unicom is the only other player in the domestic
market, and is a much smaller operation than China Mobile, counting
approximately 120 million subscribers, compared to China Mobile’s 370
million.
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China Mobile has announced that it will not be involved in the China launch of Apple's iPhone, after talks broke down on Monday. The deal discussions have appeared stalled for some time, although no reasons were given for the decision: "We can only say that negotiations have ended for now. We have no other news to report," said Li Honghui, Spokeswoman for China Mobile Communications, the country's largest mobile operator.
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