14 DAY TRIAL // It was just about time for Apple to turn its attention to its global iPhone release, now that it broke the ice in Europe. The producer is now in talks with China Mobile for the handset's support in Asia.
Apple is a pretty big fish in the high tech pond, but China Mobile can be seen as a whale. The company turns out to be the largest wireless operator in China and in the entire world. This means that it might just be strong enough to say "no" to Apple and settle for fewer compromises when it comes to carrying terms.
The iPhone has proved to be pretty popular in China up to now, with a large number of such handsets being sold on the black market as the unlocked version. Moreover, the device has become great inspiration for producers that usually choose to copy the design and features of popular handsets instead of coming up with some of their own. A Chinese version of the iPhone came out even before the actual device, which shows a great interest from this market on Apple's phone.
China Mobile's CEO, Wang Jianzhou, confirmed that they are negotiating with Apple. However, the Chinese carrier is reluctant to give out the iPhone revenue share that they will give to Apple. The iPhone's producer managed to score pretty profitable contracts in Europe, where it now receives a percentage from all revenues that the operator receives from its subscribers. Still, China Mobile is pretty confident on its position, revealing that "We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers, the end users", as Wang Jianzhou further added.
A favorable deal with a Chinese carrier for the iPhone should be of great importance to Apple. There are about 350 million potential customers in this country, many of them looking forward to own the device that they have been waiting to own for such a long while until now.