China Mobile, Apple in iPhone breakthrough
China Mobile is close to agreement with Apple on bringing the iPhone to China, a mainland newspaper reported.
China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou says the “biggest obstacles” in talks with Apple have been eliminated and the two parties are “at the operational stage”, the Oriental Morning Post reported.
China Mobile Hong Kong spokesperson Rainie Lei said Apple had abandoned its demand for revenue share, which had led to the collapse of talks last year, and there were now no obstacles to cooperation.
This follows the end of Apple’s revenue-share deal with initial partner AT&T, which is now using the more traditional handset subsidy approach.
Neither could say when the iPhone was likely to sell in China, but Wang said Mobile was “very focused” on bringing the device into the mainland.
Separately, two regional operators unveiled their iPhone price plans on Monday.
The starting price for Hutchison Telecom in Hong Kong is a free 8GB handset, with a two-year contract at HK$498 ($64) per month. At the top end it is selling the 16GB phone for HK$3,738 with a HK$188 monthly payment.
“We foresee that the new generation customers will no longer go after call plans with excessive call minutes; rather they will look for price plans that offer them complete ease of mind when consuming mobile data,” said chief operating officer mobile, Amy Lung.
Australia’s Telstra is selling the 8GB phone for A$279 ($267), with a monthly A$30 contract for two years, with the 16GB version selling for A$399.
Tags: Apple, China-Mobile, iPhone