14 DAY TRIAL // Apple and China Mobile have been discussing to bring the iPhone on the Chinese market since November 2007. At a given moment, the discussions stopped, but the fact seemed possible at the end of the last year. However, now it's clear that China Mobile will not be an iPhone carrier, as the two companies have officially called off the negotiations.
Apparently, the deal went down because Apple wanted a bigger share form the sales than China Mobile offered, which is no surprise, since Apple lost other negotiations for the same reason in the past. Both Apple and China Mobile's stocks declined with a few percents after the news about the discussions' ending surfaced.
With more than 360 million customers, China Mobile is the largest mobile operator in the world, so, if the discussions with Apple had lead to an agreement, the iPhone global sales would have surely bloomed. And this despite the handset's price (about $500), which is quite high for the normal Chinese user. But even if, let's say, only 1% of China Mobile's subscribers are interested in the iPhone, it would still be a great deal for Apple, leading to more than 3 million handsets sold.
Even though the negotiations with China Mobile failed, the iPhone might still hit the Chinese market, as the country's other important mobile operator, China Unicom, which has more than 100 million customers, could be interested in a deal with Apple.
By far the most influential mobile device from the last years, the iPhone is currently available in China only on the black market, illegally unlocked. Also, there are many iPhone clones in China, handsets that look very similar, but have an inferior quality and can be bought for 100-200 USD. Well, unless Apple doesn't convince one of the two Chinese mobile operators to make a deal, this is how it will always be.