China Mobile is in talks with Apple, Inc. in a bid to introduce iPhone mobile phones into the Chinese market, Wang Jianzhou, board chairman and CEO of the mobile telecom carrier, disclosed on November 13.

 

As the world”s largest mobile telecom carrier in terms of subscribers, China Mobile upgraded it GPRS network to EDGE network at the first half of 2007, noted industry insiders. It has first built EDGE networks in some domestic costal provinces, such as Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian.

Thus, China Mobile will have no problems in networks if it teams up with Apple. However, the two parties have not entered into agreement yet due to different opinions on profit share, Wang said.

Apple, an American multinational corporation focusing on the design and manufacture of consumer electronics and closely related software products, began selling iPhone mobile phonesin its US retail stores at the end of this June.

It sells iPhone mobile phones to US users by packaging its products with mobile services provided by AT&T, the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, wireless services, and digital subscriber line access in the US.

The iPhone, with touch-sensitive screen made from optical- quality glass instead of plastic, can handle phone calls, e- mail, Web site browsing, music, and videos.

With cool looks and innovative interface, two models of iPhone can be available in Apple’s retail stores. The price of a 4GB model is USD 499 and an 8GB model is USD 599. Sales volume of such mobile phones had hit 1 million units in the US by September 10.

The US company later launched iPhone mobile phones into Britain and Germany and also plans to sell them in the Asian market in 2008 at the earliest. Sales of iPhone mobile phones will hit 10 million units at the end of 2008, according to a forecast by Apple.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple is mainly engaged in the development and sale of personal computers, portable media players, computer software, and computer hardware accessories.

Established in January 1977, the US company was initially known as Apple Computer, Inc. and was renamed as Apple, Inc. in January 2007. It obtained global sales of USD 19.3 billion for its 2006 fiscal year ending at September 30, 2006.

As of June 2007, the company had owned retails stores in the US, the UK, Japan, Canda, and Italy.

 

Posted: 11|17|07 at 11:09 am. Filed under: Press Release.