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Chinese carriers China Unicom and China Telecom may be receiving the iPhone 5 on December 14, but the nation's largest carrier, China Mobile, has been left out the launch.
Though speculation has targeted China Mobile's network exclusive TD-SCDMA technology as the problem, the company's president says that's not the case.
As reported by Unwired View, China Mobile President Li Yue today said that incompatible network standards are not the only reason why the iPhone 5 has yet to appear on the carrier.
Speaking at 2012 China Mobile Worldwide Developer Conference, when asked about availability of iPhone, he told the audience that "technology is not a problem, [it's] mainly about business model and benefit-sharing issues".
In May, it was confirmed that China Mobile had been in negotiations with Apple about acquiring the iPhone 5, but thus far those talks have failed to produce results, and today's comment may hint at the reason. It appears that the two companies may be hindered by disagreements over revenue sharing and carrier subsidies rather than technological difficulties.
China Mobile is China's biggest cell phone carrier, with 703 million subscribers. More than 15 million of those subscribers currently use gray market iPhones on the network, which China Mobile supports.
The iPhone 5 has been much anticipated in China. China Unicom began accepting preorders on Monday and received more than 100,000 first day reservations.
Top Rated Comments
In any case, having had direct experience with Chinese telecom operators, they'll typically want pricing below your cost, then they'll buy a crapton of it, basically wounding you severely.
Then, not too long after that, your designs start to be seen in Chinese competitor's gear.
Then they switch to that "local" vendor.
Fun times.
Edited to add: http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/when-in-china-dont-leave-your-laptop-alone-208168 (http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/when-in-china-dont-leave-your-laptop-alone-208168)
Imagine Apple profits a year or two from now. They really have a pretty good business.