China Mobile close to iPhone and iPad deal
The leader of China Mobile, the major ( and larger) competitor to China Unicom, the current lone distributor of the iPhone in China, has announced that it plans to make a deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone and the iPad template computer.
China Mobile is the world’s largest tele-communications operator and there have been rumors for months that they stayed in talks with Apple even after China Unicom, the second largest mobile network in China, signed a deal to distribute the Apple handset in China, according to an AFP story. Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile’s chairman and chief executive has confirmed that this is indeed the case, announcing that “We’re hoping we’ll come to an agreement (with Apple) on the iPhone as soon as possible. We will continue to express our interest in the iPhone. But not just the iPhone, also the iPad.” This is the first that has been mentioned about the iPad in China.
Apparently, China Mobile is looking to grow their already huge business (they already have more than half a billion users) by adding the two Apple mobile platforms to their arsenal of products. Jianzhou reinforced this by saying “China Mobile is still a growing company. There are a lot of new areas (of business) that have been opened up to us. There is a lot of potential for growth… Agricultural users, students, they are new users — a lot of the new business will be from this area.”
Almost as an aside, Jianzhou said that he was not concerned about the problems between Google and the Chinese government, even though the government recently announced that new iPhones imported from Apple could now be equipped to use WiFi, a feature which they required that Apple leave off the original Chinese iPhone. That would help China Mobile market the iPhone in China, and would certainly make the iPad (assuming it could also be WiFi equipped) look like a better product in the Chinese marketplace. With two distributors and two mobile products in the country, Apple could well become a significant force in the Chinese marketplace.
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