China: No iPhone for You!

**Cody Overcash** · 02-09-2009, 03:37 PM

China Mobile and Apple have been trying to come up with an agreement to bring the iPhone to China with three rounds of talks over the last 18 months between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and COO Tim Cook and China Mobile President Wang Jianzhou. The end result of these talks is no iPhone for China

According to an Interfax source in the first round of talks Apple asked for 20-30% of China Mobile's revenues which China Mobile rejected.

In the second round Apple offered to sell iPhone to China Mobile at $600/unit as long as China Mobile agreed to subsidize the phone when selling to its users. China Mobile didn't like that much either.

The third round of talks fell apart due to the AppStore. Apple of course wanted to sell Applications for the China Mobile iPhone via the AppStore as it does with the rest of the world. In response "Wang said China Mobile should operate the application store itself in order to maintain its advantage." Wang went on further saying that applications in the AppStore are paid for by credit card and in China users prefer to pay for things via deposits to their mobile phone accounts, not by credit.

The end result is that Apple and China Mobile can not agree, killing off the chances of the iPhone officially making its way into China. Wang did however mention that China Mobile is coming up with its own strategy to offer applications for smartphones (read Google Android phones).

[Interfax via macrumors]

**andygev35** · 02-09-2009, 03:46 PM

Has Apple finally met its match in the control/greed department??

**keviNNz** · 02-09-2009, 03:53 PM

it's the chinese that are greedy, trust me i know. I'm Chinese

**staterunner180** · 02-09-2009, 03:55 PM

Hm...I wonder how many people are pissed off because they can't get the iPhone...I know I would be.

**CAPcadetJC** · 02-09-2009, 03:59 PM

China — Population: 1,330,044,544 (July 2008 est.)

boy, apple really ****** up here. Look at all those phones they could have sold. One of those modern battles Greed V. Greed.

**TheConqueror** · 02-09-2009, 04:52 PM

Oh well, at least they have all those crappy knockoffs they can use!

**Cam23** · 02-09-2009, 04:57 PM

"Assembled in China"

"Will not sell in China"

**dieselboy27** · 02-09-2009, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by Cam23

"Assembled in China"

"Will not sell in China"

That's funny

and so true.

I'm sure they'll continue to try to work something out. Apple would be stupid not to sell the device there. The market is so huge that it'd be an immense revenue stream. They'll figure something out sooner or later. Both sides can definitely win.

**domenicp** · 02-09-2009, 05:51 PM

On the china itunes store... it looks like you can already download apps for the ipod touch (I suppose). So I'm not sure why chinese users would object to the same purchasing method for the mobile phones. Sounds like more of a china mobile objection because the purchase would take place without there involvement. I suppose they want a cut of all app purchases.

**nimavafi** · 02-09-2009, 06:15 PM

start unlocking your 3g iphones...i think they are about to increase in price to chinese customers...

**SuddleD** · 02-09-2009, 06:41 PM

Communism likes to control everything....
Capitalism likes to own everything....

Who will win in a pissing contest??? I guess not the Chinese people...or apple stock holders...

**r1994augusto** · 02-09-2009, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Cam23

"Assembled in China"

"Will not sell in China"

LMAO!!!

thats the truth!

**thetoothfairy** · 02-09-2009, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by nimavafi

start unlocking your 3g iphones...i think they are about to increase in price to chinese customers...

Read this on a site...

It's clear that Apple still wants the Chinese market, and is still trying to figure out a game plan for emerging markets. In its recent earnings call, Cook said the company was "constantly evaluating the best way to play in these markets." He added, "We know that there's a huge market opportunity there, and we'll make adjustments in the future accordingly to play in a stronger way." The iPhone has been a bit of a hit in China already. Analysts estimate some 800,000 jail-broken models are in use there already.

Could one of those ways be to offer a cheaper handset? Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek is predicting in his latest report that Apple will release a lower-cost handset based on the 2.5G iPhone targeted at China and India to drum up sales. The two countries might fare better with the 2.5G model as India doesn't even have 3G networks up and running, while China Mobile's 3G networks are built on a non-compatible technology.

But what's also clear is China Mobile believes Apple needs them more than they need the iPhone, since in all of the negotiations Apple seems to be offering pretty much the same deal as all of the other networks its dealt with. Meanwhile, the negotiations with Apple over the App Store has now got China Mobile thinking. Interfax's source said the carrier was "mapping out its own strategy" to offer smartphone apps.

**FramedTrash** · 02-09-2009, 08:49 PM

i dont see the big problem here
this is why the dev team does the work they do
ppl can import the phones and unlock them
im sure theres already billions of the phones over there already

**StealthBravo** · 02-09-2009, 08:58 PM

is china mobile gsm based?

**name00** · 02-09-2009, 09:34 PM

i thought china already has IpHone

or hiphone ...stuff like that

**smuth** · 02-09-2009, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by CAPcadetJC

boy, apple really ****** up here. Look at all those phones they could have sold. One of those modern battles Greed V. Greed.

yeah because china is ALWAYS fair.....

**gordo2150** · 02-09-2009, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by staterunner180

Hm...I wonder how many people are pissed off because they can't get the iPhone...I know I would be.

Go to Macau, an find out, or just hangout in Shanghai tech district. LOL china assembles it! so you know how many iphones they have with out apple knowing about it! all my iphones comes straight from china.

apple has met the DEVIL!

Originally Posted by Cam23

"Assembled in China"

"Will not sell in China"

got pics of where you could buy them in ShangHai, not clones but the original!

**ultimatexpka** · 02-09-2009, 11:17 PM

Hah. Their loss. They can't imagine what they could of done with it. (JAILBREAK)

**sk8er982** · 02-09-2009, 11:38 PM

I dont think china gets it...

Apple says:
We have a phone, and we want to bring it to your country.
UR LUCKY WE EVEN DECIDED TO TALK TO YOU MUCH LESS SELL YOU THE PHONE!

Nieve little China says: We own this place and we will sell your device (which is the biggest hit to hit the cell phone market since GSM!) for however much we want and we will own the app store that rightfully belongs to you and you will get no control whatsoever over your own company and have no say over what happens to it and you will get nothing in return. (we just want it for a little while so we can copy the S*** out of it and sell it for twice as less becuase we have no copywrite laws)

CHINA YOU ARE REDICULOUS! I KNOW YOUR GOING TO BE A BIG SUPERPOWER IN THE NEXT 50 YEARS AND A GREAT CONTENDER FOR US AMERICANS BUT YOU NEED TO HAIL TO THE CHIEF AND REALIZE THAT NOT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO GO YOUR WAY!!!!

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China Mobile and Apple have been trying to come up with an agreement to bring the iPhone to China with three rounds of talks over the last 18 months between

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