China Has Plenty Of iPhones Without Apple.
02.18.08 - 11:29am
Apple and China Mobile may not have agreed on a collaboration for the iPhone, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese consumers from purchasing the phone and running it on the China Mobile network. As of the end of 2007 China Mobile said they had over 400,000 iPhones active on it’s network. Amounting to more than has been activated in all of Europe.
“The main reasons that Chinese mobile users purchase smartphones include entertainment (such as music players, cameras and video) and to access mobile Internet applications (such as IM, e-book, and games). We believe the iPhone will be favored by these consumers as it can better meet such demand”, Anty Zheng, Content Manager In-Stat China, explained in a February report.
You can bet Steve Jobs isn’t too happy about losing all that revenue it would normally receive had they been able to come to a profit sharing agreement. China Mobile halted talks back in November 2007 saying they did not want to share revenue with Apple. Subsequently the Chinese simply unlocked the iPhone and even came out with their own Chinese software for the phone on sale for just $25. The unlocked iPhones are sold for about $150 above market price.
There is no word yet on just how many iPhones have been activated with other Chinese networks.
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