News reports have been flying out of China today with conflicting information regarding a possible iPhone launch in China.
Apple has long been in talks with 415 million subscriber strong China Mobile, but as of this morning it was rumored that the talks had finally broken down over App Store control. It was then reported that Apple had approached China Unicom, the country’s second largest mobile carrier with roughly 130 million subscribers. Apple has reportedly had the same App Store disagreements with Unicom and a few roadblocks in the form of government restrictions. However, China Unicom will be rolling out China’s first 3G WCDMA network May 17–a network that wouldn’t require Apple to make any hardware changes to the iPhone.
China Mobile, on the other hand, will launch its 3G network using its homegrown TD-SCDMA standard which would require a radio switchup in the iPhone. This evening it was reported that China Mobile was still negotiating with Apple.
Who knows? And I guess who cares? But with such a massive population, China could drastically change the global smartphone market in favor of Apple.
via apple2.0