Sam OliverChairman Chang Xiaobing told reporters that China Unicom is in talks with Apple, according to Reuters.
"We are in talks with many handset suppliers, including Apple," he said.
Late last month a British consulting firm suggested Apple may have already reached an agreement with the carrier, which is in the process of rolling out a new 3G network. Chang predicts 20 percent of all mobile phone users in China will be on 3G in the next three years.
Early last month, rival China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou said his company has had three rounds of negotiations with the iPhone maker break down, most recently over China Mobile's insistence on co-management of the App Store, which is typically under Apple's sole control.
Wang said his company will continue to talk with Apple while declining to comment on any discussions between his rival China Unicom and the Cupertino-based iPhone maker.
Analysts who spoke to Reuters said iPhone knockoffs are available without long-term contracts in China, leading them to believe a deal to sell the smartphones there may not be a strong earnings catalyst. They added that the Apple brand doesn't enjoy the same positive status as it does elsewhere in global markets.
"iPhone is likely to be highly subsidized and China Unicom may give away large revenue share so earnings upside is possibly limited, in our view," the JP Morgan analysts wrote. "We think this is a reason why China Mobile has refused to sign with Apple to date."
Government-sponsored China Mobile is the largest mobile phone operator by subscriber count in the world with at least 415 million customers. China Unicom, meanwhile has 168 million customers, with 125 million on a GSM network and the rest on CDMA.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
19 Comments
I think CHL has the right idea. They definitely don't need Apple.
I think CHL has the right idea. They definitely don't need Apple.
Yeah, when both sides are negotiating from a percieved position of stregnth, negotiations don't usually go far.
But who is CHL?
Is that China Unicom or China Mobile? The implications from this article are that China Unicom is the minor player in the Chinese market, so they could use something to differentiate their services and grow their subscriber base.
But I agree with you, either way, Apple has more to loose--it has very little presence in China and aparently little name recognition. In the long run, this could cost them dearly. I'm sure they are hungry to be players in China... Are they hungry enough to give up some control of the App Store?
It appears that one benefit for Apple with China Unicom is they are (mostly) a GSM carrier, so in theory Apple won't have to engineer an entirely different phone for that market. But for future reference, does anyone know of a chart that indicates which Chinese carrier runs which network technology, not only for voice but also data?
Yeah, when both sides are negotiating from a percieved position of stregnth, negotiations don't usually go far.
But who is CHL?
Is that China Unicom or China Mobile?
CHL == CHINA UNICOM. L is short for LianTong, pinyin spelling for unicom chinese character.
I thought china already had more advanced cellphone networks in alot of places. Like 4G and other frequency types we didnt have here