Over the past few months, Apple has navigated through a number of roadblocks during negotiations with the two largest mobile carriers in the region, China Mobile and China Unicom. While initial negotiations crawled to a standstill over Apple's revenue sharing business model, subsequent problems emerged regarding control of Apples iTunes App Store and a Chinese law which prevents mobile devices from using Wi-Fi. But recently, stories about Apple finally reaching a deal to bring the iPhone to China have been picking up steam, with the latest rumor being a report from Reuters that Apple has struck a deal with China's second largest mobile carrier, China Unicom, and that the device may go on sale as early as this Friday.
For months now, “official” reports of the iPhone coming to China have been leaked, dissected, and ultimately proven to be erroneous. With that said, take the following information with a huge grain of salt.
It’s no secret that Apple wants to bring the iPhone to China, and COO Tim Cook recently said that Apple hopes to finalize a deal with a Chinese carrier in the next few months. After all, with millions upon millions of phone subscribers, an official iPhone launch in China would have an immediate and significant effect on Apple’s bottom line.
Over the past few months, Apple has navigated through a number of roadblocks during negotiations with the two largest mobile carriers in the region, China Mobile and China Unicom. While initial negotiations crawled to a standstill over Apple’s revenue sharing business model, subsequent problems emerged regarding issues of control of Apples iTunes App Store and a Chinese law which prevents mobile devices from using Wi-Fi.
But recently, stories about Apple finally reaching a deal to bring the iPhone to China have been picking up steam, with the latest rumor being a report from Reuters noting that Apple has struck a deal with China’s second largest mobile carrier, China Unicom, and that the device may go on sale as early as this Friday.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not, China Unicom is set to meet with the media to discuss its financial performance thus far in 2009 – and what better time to make such a big announcement?I should point out, though, that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard “official” sources predict that the iPhone would soon be arriving in China. Just 2 weeks ago, a China Unicom employee supposedly stated that China Unicom had purchased 5 million iPhones from Apple in both 8 and 16 GB models.Almost comically, just 1 day after that report hit the web, China Unicom publicly denied that they finalized any kind of deal wiith Apple, and that they had certainly not purchased 5 million iPhones.China Unicom spokesman Yi Difei even commented:
Talks between us and Apple have been going on for some time, but no agreement has been reached yet. There are all kinds of possibilities. There is no particular timetable for the talks.
By their very nature, Apple rumors tend to be all over the map and often unreliable. But when it comes to the iPhone hitting the streets of China, things get taken to an entirely new level.
We’ll find out by Friday afternoon if there’s any merit to the latest iPhone/China rumor, but a finalized deal is more a matter of “when” and not “if”.
