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China Mobile Talking with Apple About iPhone

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 12:15 PM - by

The CEO of China Mobile is discussing the iPhone with Apple, according to Computerworld on Tuesday. However, the CEO of China Mobile doesn't like the Apple revenue model agreed to by other carriers.

"Our customers like this kind of fashionable product," said Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's CEO. He made the remarks at a recent GSM Association meeting. "We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers, the end users," Wang said.

Apple has been vague about plans for the iPhone beyond the European rollout, saying only that the iPhone would be launched in Asia in 2008.

China Mobile is also a member of Google's new Open Handset Alliance, and that could be a factor in the negotiations.

Mr. Wang was also skeptical of phones that play music, but if they do, they should download the music directly from the network, not via a PC.

China Mobile has 60 million subscribers, and Mr. Wang's skepticism over Apple's revenue model combined with the Chinese traditional way of doing business and competition from others could make for complicated negotiations for Apple. Even so, it's a market Apple will want to be in.

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