Apple CEO Steve Jobs has met personally with mega-carrier China Mobile
As Apple looks to ink an iPhone deal with China Mobile, the largest mobile provider in the world, a new report reveals that company co-founder Steve Jobs has met personally with executives from the carrier on a number of occasions.
China Mobile revealed the meetings with Jobs during a news conference regarding its earnings for the first half of 2011, according to Reuters. Jobs has reportedly met with executives from the carrier "several times," and wishes to introduce an iPhone based on China Mobile's network standard.
Officials with China Mobile also reportedly revealed that 7.44 million iPhones are used on its network, despite the fact that the iPhone is not officially available to its customers.
Users who operate an iPhone on China Mobile's network cannot access high-speed 3G, because it uses its own TDSCDMA standard. The iPhone, in its current form, does not support that standard, leaving users who use an iPhone with China Mobile operating at much slower 2G speeds.
The news that Jobs himself has met with China Mobile officials comes a few months after Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was rumored to have been spotted at the carrier's corporate headquarters. Rumors of a deal between Apple and China Mobile have persisted for some time.
While those rumors have lingered, no official has been announced. Earlier this month, it was claimed once again that the two sides had come to a deal. That rumor suggested the iPhone 4 would be officially sold to China Mobile's customers by the end of October.
Further supporting the latest rumors of an impending deal between the two parties, last month AppleInsider uncovered an unverified photo that appears to show an iPhone 4 running on China Mobile's 3G network.
China has been an important piece of Apple's growth in recent months, amounting to $9 billion alone this year. That trend is expected to continue upward, with China's smartphone market predicted to be worth $70 billion total.
China Mobile revealed the meetings with Jobs during a news conference regarding its earnings for the first half of 2011, according to Reuters. Jobs has reportedly met with executives from the carrier "several times," and wishes to introduce an iPhone based on China Mobile's network standard.
Officials with China Mobile also reportedly revealed that 7.44 million iPhones are used on its network, despite the fact that the iPhone is not officially available to its customers.
Users who operate an iPhone on China Mobile's network cannot access high-speed 3G, because it uses its own TDSCDMA standard. The iPhone, in its current form, does not support that standard, leaving users who use an iPhone with China Mobile operating at much slower 2G speeds.
The news that Jobs himself has met with China Mobile officials comes a few months after Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was rumored to have been spotted at the carrier's corporate headquarters. Rumors of a deal between Apple and China Mobile have persisted for some time.
While those rumors have lingered, no official has been announced. Earlier this month, it was claimed once again that the two sides had come to a deal. That rumor suggested the iPhone 4 would be officially sold to China Mobile's customers by the end of October.
Further supporting the latest rumors of an impending deal between the two parties, last month AppleInsider uncovered an unverified photo that appears to show an iPhone 4 running on China Mobile's 3G network.
China has been an important piece of Apple's growth in recent months, amounting to $9 billion alone this year. That trend is expected to continue upward, with China's smartphone market predicted to be worth $70 billion total.
Comments
With over 620,000,000 subscribers 1% penetration of a GSM/TD-SCDMA iPhone would be 6.2 million units. That seems too great an opportunity to pass up.
This would be huge, even for Apple.
Any large company shut out of that kind of market stands to loose big. Surprisingly Android actually has an upper hand, even though their leadership is never really seen in china (at least I haven't heard about them traveling there), because a lot of asian manufacturers simply adopt android and ship their own, compatible hardware.
Does anyone know whether iOS or Android is the majority in China currently?
The news that Jobs himself has met with China Mobile officials comes a few months after Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was rumored to have been spotted at the carrier's corporate headquarters.
Maybe they don't realize that Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs?
We all probably look the same to them.
Maybe they don't realize that Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs?
We all probably look the same to them.
What a wonderful culturally sensitive remark. I would imagine that Steve Jobs is one of the most recognizable Americans after movie stars, and maybe a few music artists and politicians.
What a wonderful culturally sensitive remark. I would imagine that Steve Jobs is one of the most recognizable Americans after movie stars, and maybe a few music artists and politicians.
I think you may be a little too immersed in the tech world.
I'd be surprised if any business people were in the 100 most recognisable Americans.
I think you may be a little too immersed in the tech world.
I'd be surprised if any business people were in the 100 most recognisable Americans.
Oh, I am not sure about your point.
Not too many CEOs -- if any -- have made it to tmz.com.
I think you may be a little too immersed in the tech world.
I'd be surprised if any business people were in the 100 most recognisable Americans.
Jobs is in the top 10. That said, in general businessmen are anonymous. The other exception is Zuckerberg.
I think you may be a little too immersed in the tech world.
I'd be surprised if any business people were in the 100 most recognisable Americans.
Sorry, but the entire globe knows who the hell Steven P. Jobs is as he has been on countless covers, not the least of which is Time, Der Spiegel, etc.
Sorry, but the entire globe knows who the hell Steven P. Jobs is as he has been on countless covers, not the least of which is Time, Der Spiegel, etc.
I think it's difficult for people to remove their personal biases/interests from these types of discussions.
Note that the question was not whether they know who Jobs is (i.e. have they heard the name), but would they recognise him. I can guarantee that my parents couldn't pick him out of a line-up, but they would recognise at least the last half-dozen or so Presidents, many sporting stars, many many musicians, and literally hundreds of Hollywood actors.
I would be extremely confident that asking people from around the globe to rank the top 100 most recognisable Americans (i.e., shown a bunch of photos, then asked to rank them) would be broken down something like this:
- Hollywood actors 59%
- Musicians 25%
- Sports stars 8%
- Politicians 8%
- Businesspeople 0%
If I was really bored I could probably come up with a somewhat accurate representation, but I'm not quite that bored :-)
I think it's difficult for people to remove their personal biases/interests from these types of discussions.
Note that the question was not whether they know who Jobs is (i.e. have they heard the name), but would they recognise him. I can guarantee that my parents couldn't pick him out of a line-up, but they would recognise at least the last half-dozen or so Presidents, many sporting stars, many many musicians, and literally hundreds of Hollywood actors.
I would be extremely confident that asking people from around the globe to rank the top 100 most recognisable Americans (i.e., shown a bunch of photos, then asked to rank them) would be broken down something like this:
- Hollywood actors 59%
- Musicians 25%
- Sports stars 8%
- Politicians 8%
- Businesspeople 0%
If I was really bored I could probably come up with a somewhat accurate representation, but I'm not quite that bored :-)
Examples that invalidate your list: Donald Trump, Lee Iacocca, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg, Howard Hughes, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Walt Disney. I would be surprised if your parents didn't go 6 or better of 8 in that list. I would consider anyone under 50 an ostrich if they couldn't go 8 for 8.
Examples that invalidate your list: Donald Trump, Lee Iacocca, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg, Howard Hughes, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Walt Disney. I would be surprised if your parents didn't go 6 or better of 8 in that list. I would consider anyone under 50 an ostrich if they couldn't go 8 for 8.
But again, I assume you are talking about recognition in USA. What about outside the US? I personally would not be able to pick out Lee Iacocca or Walt Disney, or even Warren Buffett if I saw them in a small crowd. And I'd probably pick out Leo Dicaprio if I was asked about Howard Hughes. Wasn't the original point that Steve Jobs may not be very recognisible in China? Maybe with more and more exposure he would become more recogisible but the fact that he is less seen in the public eye right now does not help.
The other comment by the other poster about all Westerners looking the same to Chinese made me laugh. Richard Pryor made a joke similar to that when a woman asked him to do Flip Wilson's routine... "we all look alike, don't we?". And this wasn't even an East-West thing. It was an all-American thing.
I hope SJ is doing well, we didnt have any news about him in a long time.
No news is good news. And Apple couldn't keep his death secret; there'd be all sorts of government outcry.
So he's fine.
Examples that invalidate your list: Donald Trump, Lee Iacocca, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg, Howard Hughes, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Walt Disney. I would be surprised if your parents didn't go 6 or better of 8 in that list. I would consider anyone under 50 an ostrich if they couldn't go 8 for 8.
It's actually really funny how US-centric some people's viewpoints can be.
I can guarantee that not more than 30% of Australians (for example) have ever even HEARD of Lee Iacocca, and the number who would recognize him from a photo would be absolutely minuscule.
Donald Trump would make the top 100, but not as a businessman, he is known outside the US as a reality tv host and as a failed politician.
Try to keep in mind the discussion at hand, one way to think about the point I'm making is that America has simply produced so many folks who are very well-known around the world that it's simply very hard for a mere businessman to crack the top 100 when you're up against Presidents, Michael Jacksons, Madonnas, Tiger Woods', etc...
It's actually really funny how US-centric some people's viewpoints can be.
I can guarantee that not more than 30% of Australians (for example) have ever even HEARD of Lee Iacocca, and the number who would recognize him from a photo would be absolutely minuscule.
Donald Trump would make the top 100, but not as a businessman, he is known outside the US as a reality tv host and as a failed politician.
Try to keep in mind the discussion at hand, one way to think about the point I'm making is that America has simply produced so many folks who are very well-known around the world that it's simply very hard for a mere businessman to crack the top 100 when you're up against Presidents, Michael Jacksons, Madonnas, Tiger Woods', etc...
Actually I misread a little piece of your post as being in-general worldwide rather than specifically "outside" the US. You forget the Yanks propensity to generalize the hell out of less than precise language.
OK so I'll throw in Rupert Murdoch for your business folks. He's good for the UK proper as well as the Aussies and Yanks. I even knew of him as a Yank stationed in Japan where I developed a totally insupportable fondness of cricket via the Star Channel. Hell, I even learned about the Ashes
The Donald didn't do what he did for TV, it was all about building his exposure and stroking his ego for business dealings. The fake run for President was just more of the same. There was zero chance he was ever serious from an actual standpoint, he's smart and knows he has too many people that hate him for his money/willingness to flaunt it.
Now back to Steve. It doesn't matter what Joe-or-Wu Chen-on-the-street has for a recognition ability. What matters is the recognition ability of paid sources and business writers. You KNOW, or at least you should that there have been talks between Apple and China Mobile for several years, which makes the probability that those paid sources around there ALL have very good recognition of the top slice of Apple's management, just so they can get paid for the scoop. That isn't American Centric, that's wallet centric.
I hope SJ is doing well, we didnt have any news about him in a long time.
No news is good news. And Apple couldn't keep his death secret; there'd be all sorts of government outcry.
So he's fine.
Being on medical leave of absence for 8 months is still concerning. We will just have to wait to find out what happened/ is happening.
I wish Steve Jobs all the best but Apple having more "real" money than most banks and countries while being No. 1 or 2 in the world by market capitalisation... You can't have a CEO be on medical leave for unknown reasons for years and years. I can understand setting say 6 months as "Steve on medical but still involved closely" because you don't want him to be taking leave, then coming back, then taking leave again, that would cause more disruption. But 12 months is my opinion on the maximum time he can be on medical leave without any disclosure of what's going on.
Remember in his latest public appearance he is the thinnest and, unfortunately, sickest-looking he's ever been in public. Ever.
It doesn't matter what Joe-or-Wu Chen-on-the-street has for a recognition ability...
Even here in South East Asia it takes some experience before you can determine gender solely by an ethnic-Chinese person's name and you need their full name (three words*) and a guess of their original dialect heritage to determine so. Maybe that's one of the many reasons here and around the world the ethnic-Chinese are giving themselves English first names. Not so much yet in China itself, but soon, I imagine.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name