Word on the street: China Mobile, China’s largest cell phone carrier, is revisiting negotiations with Apple to subsidize the iPhone in its home country says JLM Pacific Epoch.
The research firm cites China Communications, which in turn quotes sources close to China Mobile (via macnn.com). As part of the ‘new deal’, China Communications would provide a significant subsidy for each unit sold. A subsidy in China is not only beneficial, but necessary. As the cost of the 16GB phone at $499. 2.5G iPhone cost twice as much as the average monthly salary of a Chinese worker.
In the past Apple has tried to bring the iPhone to China, in hopes of benefiting from the large population (of technology lovers), but ran into walls due to China’s insistence on sharing revenues. As luck would have it, China Communications dropped their policy for the iPhone 3G and negotiations are back up and running. It should only be a matter of time until all of the “t’s” are crossed and the “i’s” are dotted on the China Communications and Apple contract, and the iPhone 3G could make it’s way into the savvy, hipster lives of the Chinese youth.
