The company designated as Apple’s only (so far) retailer and service provider in China says that they expect that the iPhone will attract a 10 percent market share of China’s 3G users.

After years of obstacles being placed in the way by local lawmakers at the behest of South Korean handset manufacturers, Apple is finally going to be allowed to sell the iPhone there.

Recent rumors have pointed to a “worldmode” iPhone sometime next year, which would mean Verizon network compatibility. Today, we get independent, if off-handed, confirmation that the mothership is at least talking with the chipset maker at the center of this tantalizing possibility.

Apple’s serious about mobile gaming — the company’s newest iPhone and iPod touch models include best of class ARM processors, a good bit o’ RAM and richly detailed OpenGL graphics. Moreover, Cupertino’s been kitting out its in-house iPhone game development team with Graeme Devine of Halo Wars fame already on board.

The long rumored iPhone nano could be on the verge becoming a reality, according to a rumor out of Taiwan. Moreover, reportedly smaller version of Apple’s world changing smartphone will pack quite a wallop as it’s expected to bridge incompatible CDMA and UMTS wireless systems, raising hopes once again of the iPhone coming to Verizon.

It seems that nothing, not even a tenacious worldwide recession, can keep the smartphone market from growing and the Apple portion of it from growing even faster than the overall niche.

Although the reception to the iPhone going on sale in China was warm, the event does not seem to have engendered the sort of sellout reception that a new model iPhone introduction does in most markets.

The Mac tablet breadcrumb trail now leads down under with media companies in Oz, off the record of course, reporting that the mothership’s been round to pitch their phantom device. This latest report adds weight to rumors that the Cupertino, California-based Mac, iPod and iPhone maker is preparing to remake the publishing business, bringing it into the 21st Century.

From a theoretical perspective, today’s announcement is good news and establishes a level of network openness that should have been standard from the beginning. Realistically, however, it’s hard to image that letting Skype and Google Voice run roughshod over Ma Bell’s strained-to-the-point-of-buckling 3G network will improve service or reliability.

Add South Korea to the long list of countries where the iPhone is available, now that the South Korean government has approved the sale of the Apple mobile platform in that country.