Apple’s CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile’s Chairman Xi Guohua last Thursday to discuss “matters of cooperation,” a China Mobile spokesman said. No further details were given due to a confidentiality agreement signed, and we’ll rather have to wait for another few weeks or months to get something new on this.
Apple currently has deals with China Unicom and China Telecom to sell its iPhones in China, but it still hasn’t managed to make an arrangement with China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile carrier by subscribers. Making such a deal would propel the Cupertino-based company to the new heights, helping it fight currently dominant Android platform in the country.
The problem with dealing with China Mobile arose when the carrier asked for special privileges, including revenue sharing, from Apple, which doesn’t have something similar in place with any other carrier. We tend to think that if China Mobile gets its way, other operators from all around the world will follow suit, pushing the iPhone maker to give them a portion of their revenues, as well.
As usual, you can expect us to follow up on this story and get back to you with new information as soon as we get them,
[Via: Reuters]