China Telecom possibly in talks with Apple over iPhone
China's third-largest wireless operator may be in talks with Apple to offer a CDMA-version of the iPhone on its 3G network, according to an overseas report.
The South China Morning Post report cited a Deutsche Bank analyst note that claims China Unicom's exclusivity deal for the iPhone 4 would "likely come to an end early next year."
"Although China Telecom management in a recent lunch meeting refused to confirm whether the company would also begin selling a CDMA iPhone in China next quarter, our own channel checks suggest that the company has been in intensive talks with chipset supplier Qualcomm and Apple to ensure that this [development], indeed, happens," the paper quoted the note as saying.
Since China Telecom and Verizon use the same CDMA2000 EV-DO 3G standard, reports of a CDMA iPhone often point to both carriers. In a note to investors Thursday, J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote that he expects "the introduction of a CDMA iPhone first with Verizon in early 2011 and then China Telecom in early to mid-2011."
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Apple is indeed building a CDMA iPhone, then amended the story to specifically state that the phone would be coming to Verizon. Verizon President Lowell McAdam declined to "give any insight" on the Journal's report, instead saying that Apple would be the one to announce a partnership.
The Journal did not state whether the rumored CDMA iPhone would also be coming to China Telecom.
China Mobile, the world's largest wireless provider, hopes to get the iPhone as well, but it faces the obstacle of convincing Apple to cater to its proprietary 3G network. In March, China Mobile chief executive Wang Jianzhou called on Apple to include TD-SCDMA in the iPhone.
The state-owned company had hoped to avoid patent royalty fees from Nokia and Qualcomm by using a China-developed 3G standard. Although China Mobile has managed to court several manufacturers, including BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, it has struggled to attract subscribers for its 3G service.
Meanwhile, China Unicom is enjoying a steady influx of new 3G subscribers through sales of the iPhone 4, which officially arrived in China on Sept. 25. China Unicom revealed that it had received over 200,000 preorders in the first few days of availability and might not be able to fulfill preorders until late October.
The South China Morning Post report cited a Deutsche Bank analyst note that claims China Unicom's exclusivity deal for the iPhone 4 would "likely come to an end early next year."
"Although China Telecom management in a recent lunch meeting refused to confirm whether the company would also begin selling a CDMA iPhone in China next quarter, our own channel checks suggest that the company has been in intensive talks with chipset supplier Qualcomm and Apple to ensure that this [development], indeed, happens," the paper quoted the note as saying.
Since China Telecom and Verizon use the same CDMA2000 EV-DO 3G standard, reports of a CDMA iPhone often point to both carriers. In a note to investors Thursday, J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote that he expects "the introduction of a CDMA iPhone first with Verizon in early 2011 and then China Telecom in early to mid-2011."
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Apple is indeed building a CDMA iPhone, then amended the story to specifically state that the phone would be coming to Verizon. Verizon President Lowell McAdam declined to "give any insight" on the Journal's report, instead saying that Apple would be the one to announce a partnership.
The Journal did not state whether the rumored CDMA iPhone would also be coming to China Telecom.
China Mobile, the world's largest wireless provider, hopes to get the iPhone as well, but it faces the obstacle of convincing Apple to cater to its proprietary 3G network. In March, China Mobile chief executive Wang Jianzhou called on Apple to include TD-SCDMA in the iPhone.
The state-owned company had hoped to avoid patent royalty fees from Nokia and Qualcomm by using a China-developed 3G standard. Although China Mobile has managed to court several manufacturers, including BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, it has struggled to attract subscribers for its 3G service.
Meanwhile, China Unicom is enjoying a steady influx of new 3G subscribers through sales of the iPhone 4, which officially arrived in China on Sept. 25. China Unicom revealed that it had received over 200,000 preorders in the first few days of availability and might not be able to fulfill preorders until late October.
Comments
BTW they have to throw out some form of CDMA Iphone speculation to deflect the Verizon Iphone rumors.
Now this is probably bigger than a Verizon deal.
If you look at the number of subs Verizon has a major upper hand, and that?s before you consider Verizon probably has a lot more people who can are willing to pay for the iPhone on that network and the Chinese version costs more than the US version when you convert currencies.
Now if Apple made a GSM/TD-SCDMA iPhone for China Mobile?s 570,000,000 subs, now that would be something that would probably best Verizon in the number of subs buying an iPone.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...agreement.html
All that we talk about when it comes to the CDMA iPhone is Verizon when it could very well go to Sprint or a carrier in China, or Japan... or somewhere else... Then we'd all be looking like a bunch of chimps come January or whenever this thing is shipped.
Yeah, it's pretty clear that they don't need a "deal" with Verizon even though all the tech blogs keep saying they do. It would be better for the customers and for Apple especially, just to have an open, unlocked CDMA phone that is for sale to anyone that wants it. This is far more likely to please the actual customers of Verizon than any "deal" with Verizon itself and has the side effect of increasing availability of the phone worldwide.
People forget that Apple's exclusivity deal with AT&T has been an albatross around their neck for at least the last few years, and that Apple has few exclusive deals with any carriers around the world anymore.
It would be better for the customers and for Apple especially, just to have an open, unlocked CDMA phone that is for sale to anyone that wants it.
This I don?t understand. If it would be better for both then why isn?t this being done? Why do vendors continually make exclusive deals with carriers if it?s undoubtedly better for the vendor and consumer?
If you look at the number of subs Verizon has a major upper hand, and that?s before you consider Verizon probably has a lot more people who can are willing to pay for the iPhone on that network and the Chinese version costs more than the US version when you convert currencies.
Now if Apple made a GSM/TD-SCDMA iPhone for China Mobile?s 570,000,000 subs, now that would be something that would probably best Verizon in the number of subs buying an iPone.
Not everyone of that 570,000,000 subs that China Mobile has can really afford an iPhone, maybe around 20-30% of them can. Still more than Verizon though.
I say if China mobile wants iPhone with TD-SCDMA, they probably have a better chance going with one of the local Shanzhai producers and come up with an iPhone lookalike.
Yeah, it's pretty clear that they don't need a "deal" with Verizon even though all the tech blogs keep saying they do. It would be better for the customers and for Apple especially, just to have an open, unlocked CDMA phone that is for sale to anyone that wants it. This is far more likely to please the actual customers of Verizon than any "deal" with Verizon itself and has the side effect of increasing availability of the phone worldwide.
People forget that Apple's exclusivity deal with AT&T has been an albatross around their neck for at least the last few years, and that Apple has few exclusive deals with any carriers around the world anymore.
Unlocked means unsubsidized. Apple tried that in 2007 and it didn't work as well as they had hoped.
Now this is probably bigger than a Verizon deal.
China Telecom has just over 40 million wireless subscribers. So its about half as big as a potential Verizon deal.
This I don?t understand. If it would be better for both then why isn?t this being done? Why do vendors continually make exclusive deals with carriers if it?s undoubtedly better for the vendor and consumer?
Because exclusive deals benefit the vendor and producers more. Subsidized phones with vendors benefit the producers more than unsubsidized phones.
Unlocked means unsubsidized. Apple tried that in 2007 and it didn't work as well as they had hoped.
Actually, it was still locked to AT&T and even though it wasn’t subsidized* they instead had profit sharing**. No, unlock does not unsubsidized, though a subsidized phone in the US is locked for obvious reasons.
* The carrier getting a contract from customers at time of purchase for the handset and then paying the vendor a lump sum for the agreed upon difference.
** The handset was sold locked and contract free but not at less than retail full price, and for each contract gained using by the carrier they would pay an agreed upon monthly fee to the vendor the agreed upon duration that the handset was in use.
Unlocked means unsubsidized. Apple tried that in 2007 and it didn't work as well as they had hoped.
Unlocked and unsubsidised iPhone 4's are available in many countries, including the UK - Only direct from Apple.
Unlocked and unsubsidised iPhone 4's are available in many countries, including the UK - Only direct from Apple.
In addtion to a subsidized option.