by: By Bryan Gardiner
It's been a tumultuous few months for Apple and China Mobile. Ultimately, after failing to agree on a business model for selling the iPhone in China, the country's (and the world's) largest mobile operator announced that negotiations with Apple had officially ended in January.
But as we suspected, the story might not be over yet.
On Monday, China Mobile chief executive Wang Jianzhou reaffirmed that his company is still interested in offering the device if the so-called "iPhone Problem" can be worked out.
"As long as our customers want this kind of product, we will keep all options open," he told a group of reporters.
While, officially, there are still no talks between Apple and China Mobile, the timing of that statement is noteworthy when you consider what Apple COO Tim Cook said just last week at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium. During the conference, Cook told attendees that Apple would do whatever it takes to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of the year, even if means altering Apple's standard iPhone MO (selling the device through one exclusive carrier and requiring a substantial revenue sharing model).
As we've said before, China Mobile and its 332 million subscribers (more than the entire population of the U.S.) has to be an incredibly alluring, if not frustrating, market for Apple. A $500 iPhone would be roughly double the average monthly salary in China, and revenue sharing, according to one anonymous mobile executive in China, is literally a foreign concept in the country. That said, coming up with a mutually beneficial business arrangement with China Mobile would undoubtedly mean a huge bump in iPhone sales.
For its own part, Apple has remained tight-lipped about any willingness to return to the negotiating table with the carrier, although Cook did say that the iPhone will debut in Asia sometime this year. The Cupertino company has also reportedly been in talks with China Unicom, China Mobile's closest competitor.
In the end, Apple may simply be waiting to gauge the success of other international iPhone laucnes before deciding what to do about China. If the iPhone proves a spectacular hit in Spain, Ireland or Canada, then keeping negotiations in limbo may be fine. If, on the other hand, Apple finds itself significantly short of its 10 million goal later this summer, talking with China Mobile may be less of an option, and more of a necessity.
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