China Mobile, Apple end talks on iPhone
Talks between China Mobile Ltd. and Apple Inc. over the launch of iPhone handsets in China have been called off, officials at the Chinese company said Monday.
"We can only say that negotiations have ended for now. We have no other news to report," said Li Honghui, a spokeswoman for China Mobile Communications Corp., the parent of cell phone carrier China Mobile. She declined to comment further.
Rainie Lei, a spokeswoman for China Mobile, earlier Monday also declined to say why the talks ended.
"We have held talks with Apple to launch the iPhone device in China. However, those talks have ended," she said.
Calls to Cupertino, California-based Apple were not answered Monday.
Citing an unnamed official at China Mobile's data services department, Chinese Internet portal Sina.com reported Monday that China Mobile and Apple could not agree on revenue-sharing terms in their preliminary discussions, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
The official said China Mobile was unwilling to accept Apple's request for a 20 percent to 30 percent share of China Mobile's user fees from future iPhone users, according to the report.
Market watchers and analysts have said a breakdown in talks between Apple and China Mobile could open the way for rival China Unicom Ltd. to offer the iPhone exclusively in mainland China.
China Unicom spokeswoman Sophia Tso declined to comment.
Eric Wen, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said the lack of an agreement would have little impact on China Mobile. But he said the failed negotiations could be a significant positive for China Unicom, which could start talks on an exclusive deal to supply the iPhone.
Wen said he believes China Unicom may be more willing than China Mobile to give Apple a larger percentage of user fees given its smaller share of China's mobile phone market.
Apple launched the iPhone in the U.S. in 2007 and has said it plans to launch the device in Asia this year. It hasn't disclosed any details on which operators in the region it might work with.
Analysts have said they expect Apple to launch the iPhone with one exclusive partner in each country in Asia, as it has done in the U.S. and in Britain.
Apple Call Options Gain on New Product Speculation (Update1)
By Jeff Kearns
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Options traders increased bets that Apple Inc. will advance this week after two analysts raised their profit estimates for the iPhone maker and said the company may introduce products at the Macworld Expo tomorrow.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs may use his annual keynote address at the event in San Francisco to announce slimmer laptops, higher-capacity iPhones and a digital movie-rental service, Bank of America analyst Scott Craig wrote today.
``It's certainly bullish,'' said Adam Futterman, director of options sales and trading at WJB Capital Group in New York. ``This is a big event tomorrow. The product rollout is important but people are also looking to Jobs to give out a data point, whether on the number of Macs or iPhones they've sold.''
The price of today's most-traded Apple options, January $180 calls, increased 28 percent to $4.30. January $190 calls, the second-most active, gained 3.6 percent to $1.16. For those wagers to pay off, Apple stock must climb 4.2 percent and 10 percent, respectively, from the Jan. 11 closing price before the contracts expire at the end of the week.
Apple advanced 3.5 percent to $178.78 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has doubled since Jobs introduced the iPhone, Apple's first mobile phone, at last year's Macworld conference.
``People who are making a play for a bullish move are looking at Apple and saying this could really rally,'' said Peter Dunay, who oversees $160 million including options as chief investment strategist at Leeb Capital Management in New York. ``That's what the options are telling you.''
China Mobile iPhone talks in questionLess than three weeks after the first reports that Apple (AAPL) was in talks with China Mobile — the world’s largest cell phone operator with 350 million subscribers — to carry the iPhone in China, negotiations have broken down, according to a report today in China’s Southern Daily newspaper.
This follows earlier reports that talks with China Unicom, the country’s second-largest carrier, had also failed. The sticking point in both cases: the revenue-sharing model that Apple insisted on — and got — in the U.S. and European market.
It’s impossible to say from the brief report today whether this door is firmly closed or could be re-opened. Henry Blodget has argued persuasively in Silicon Alley Insider that a China iPhone deal is inevitable. The Chinese market is so big that even if Apple got only a 1% slice of the pie, no revenue sharing and fire sale prices, it could see revenues of $600 million a year. A 5% market share at today’s iPhone prices could bring in $6 billion a year, even without revenue sharing. (link)
That there is demand for the iPhone among Chinese mobile aficionados is clear. Wired early this month reported on the lively trade in black market iPhones, known in China as the “Ai Feng” (”Crazy Love”). The devices are carried back into the country where they were originally manufactured by mules from Hong Kong and sell for as little as $474.
But Apple may need China more than China Mobile needs it. Earlier this week, Chinese wire services reported that rather than relying on the big Chinese distributors to sell the iPhone, Apple plans to open its own stores in China in 2008.
fortune.cnn.comiPhoning It In?
by Kara Swisher
The annual love-in to All Things Steve Jobs, oops, we mean Apple, opens this week in San Francisco. Of course, the punditry is in high gear over what precious object his iHoliness will pull out of his pocket in 2008.
Or, apparently this year, out of the air, which is some sort of super-duper-double-secret-probation object or service–revealed on an Apple banner spotted at the Moscone Center (see below)–that is supposed to send Apple’s legions of fanboys into their annual tizzy at the Macworld Conference & Expo.
Last year, of course, that meant near-nirvana, as Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the event, as he foisted the instantly iconic object out upward to the ecstatic crowd.
But, given the game-changing nature of the iPhone, the excitement deserved its leap into the mainstream and even its ultra-hyped and never-ending rollout.
Naturally, that is a near impossible act to follow, so one wonders how jazzed Jobs can make his legions of followers AiP (After iPhone) when he delivers his keynote tomorrow.
Rumors run the gamut from a small portable computer aimed at road warriors and those with money to burn to a new iteration of Apple TV with more Hollywood deals attached to iTunes movie rentals to more and better for the iPhone.
Until then, check out our new favorite video on one person’s very funny guess of what is to come:
