No wonder Apple’s revenue sharing negotiations with China Mobile for the iPhone didn’t go as planned. China Mobile itself is claiming that something like 400,000 unlocked iPhones are already in use on its network. With the iPhone black market doing as well as it is in China, Apple would be hard pressed to guarantee iPhone exclusivity to China Mobile in return for iPhone revenue kickbacks. Which could be one explanation for Apple’s delay in launching the iPhone in China.
At 400,000 iPhones, unlocked iPhones exceed In Stat’s estimates by four-fold. And many China-bound iPhones are commanding premiums in the hundreds of dollars. Those Chinese sure do love them some iPhone.
If Apple is willing to ditch the revenue sharing model, the iPhone could do very well in China – more so than it already allegedly is.
[Via: Macworld]