China Mobile knocks on Apple's door, seeks preferential treatment

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Fearing growing competition from its smaller rivals, iPhone holdout China Mobile is reaching out to Apple this month in hopes that the mobile device maker will concede to building support for Beijing's proprietary 3G standard into its next-generation handset.



China Mobile, the world's largest wireless provider, held a commanding 95 percent share of all new subscriber additions in China before the nation launched its 3G initiative last year, which saw its two smaller rivals -- China Telecom and China Unicom -- ink iPhone distribution deals with Apple.



According to the Financial Times, the operator has relinquished a sizable portion of its lead in recent months, with January figures showing China Mobile's share of new subscriber additions hovering just above the 50% marker for the 30-day period.



Much of China Mobile's challenges stems from its decision to adopt the country's home-grown 3G standard, called TD-SCDMA. Both China Telecom and China Unicom have chosen alternative routes, adopting more widely used technology compatible with Apple's existing iPhone models.



In a conference call covering China Mobile's annual results on Thursday, chief executive Wang Jianzhou called on Apple to include TD-SCDMA in its next-generation iPhone, claiming rival smartphone maker Research in Motion "is doing it" and that it's "not that hard to do." He added that Apple had yet to formally respond to his requests.



Jianzhou's calls are likely to go unanswered because the concessions he's seeking stand in stark contrast to Apple's iPhone strategy of delivering one device for the entire world. As the FT points out, simply adding a TD-SCDMA chip to its worldwide models is similarly unlikely, as there's no room for additional components in a device as slim as the Apple handset, not to mention the added costs for bundling the added technology.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 56
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    Don't do it, Apple!



    Support worldwide standards!
  • Reply 2 of 56
    jwsjws Posts: 7member
    Don't do it, Apple!



    Support worldwide standards!



    /Agree! Just get a model in China that supports WIFI.

    Oh - And hi boards - First Post.



    JWS
  • Reply 3 of 56
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JWS View Post


    Don't do it, Apple!



    Support worldwide standards!



    /Agree! Just get a model in China that supports WIFI.

    Oh - And hi boards - First Post.



    JWS



    Welcome.



    K
  • Reply 4 of 56
    Ah, the wonders of communism.
  • Reply 5 of 56
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    TD-SCDMA isn't proprietary. In fact, it's been designed to avoid the licensing issues surrounding other 3G standards.
  • Reply 6 of 56
    postulantpostulant Posts: 1,272member
    Sounds like the iPhone is doing well in China. I recall reading here that the iPhone would flop there.
  • Reply 7 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Don't do it, Apple!



    Support worldwide standards!



    I agree with You!
  • Reply 8 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JWS View Post


    Don't do it, Apple!



    Oh - And hi boards - First Post.



    JWS



    Wellcome!!
  • Reply 9 of 56
    Yeah Apple don't do it especially since they pulled the "RIM is doing it" card haha. Next thing you know, North Korea will demand a Kim Jong-Il edition iPhone xD
  • Reply 10 of 56
    t0mat0t0mat0 Posts: 58member
    No mention of the time it'd take for Apple to incorporate this hardware?



    Ain't going to happen with 4th Gen iPhone unless Apple has been working on this for a while. China Mobile can't just snap its fingers and say please & Apple somehow able to fulfil their request for a device shipping in the summer. That would be magic
  • Reply 11 of 56
    don't do it.... standards are there for a reason! Hopefully China Mobile's 3G issues would convince Apple it's a terrible idea.
  • Reply 12 of 56
    This Chinese Company should have a subdivision which supports iPhone... If they think that it's so easy for Apple to do it, why don't they do it on their end? Hey, there are less towers than iPhones! Also, doing that subdivision would allow them to bring their competitors' customers in too...



    As to Worldwide Standard, LTE = WiMax, is that gonna be another War for 4G Supremacy, dividing the world markets? How many of those wars do those providers want to go through? Waste of $$, and TIME! But, its probably meant as a tool for protecting their markets from competition etc...



    Then 5G will come, after we are all dead and they will be fighting for the best 5G flavor -- same kind of waste!!!



    Or will someone be making converters, ala 110/220 Volts, for modems to work on 4G, then 5G?



    It would be nice to see a better way!
  • Reply 13 of 56
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I'm all for a TD-SCDMA iPhone and I have to wonder if it's more likely to come about before a CDMA/EV-DO iPhone. After all, Verizon and other CDMA/EV-DO networks are mostly moving to LTE while China Mobile's dominance and size will keep it on TD-SCDMA for a long time and have 530M subs that is increasing by about 5.5M subs per month, possibly putting it at 600M subs by the end of the year.. Even with a vastly smaller percentage of smartphone users and people who can afford the iPhone it can't be ignored for too long.
  • Reply 14 of 56
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cendrillon View Post


    Ah, the wonders of communism.



    Yeah, while in a way I sympathize with their desire to create a standard without licensing issues, they've taken very much a "command economy" approach with this. Why should any company adopt a standard that has been created largely in isolation and without agreement. Do they really expect Apple to take up the bother and expense of a new standard just for them -- even as they stick to a single standard everywhere else in the world (and even in the US where there are competing standards and the majority of their phone profits?)
  • Reply 15 of 56
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DESuserIGN View Post


    Yeah, while in a way I sympathize with their desire to create a standard without licensing issues, they've taken very much a "command economy" approach with this. Why should any company adopt a standard that has been created largely in isolation and without agreement. Do they really expect Apple to take up the bother and expense of a new standard just for them -- even as they stick to a single standard everywhere else in the world (and even in the US where there are competing standards and the majority of their phone profits?)



    Longterm planning suggests that TD-SCDMA is a better choice than CDMA2000. It looks like TD-SCDMA outpaced CDMA last year and CDMA2000 has even less subs as many carriers added 3GSM after CDMA or CDMA2000 to combat their limitations. I'd say that TD-SCDMA is likely to continue to grow and the "isolation" aspect is actually a benefit, not a hinderance, since the "isolation" is so incredibly vast* and looks to have a subscriber count larger than CDMA worldwide count.



    * China is the 3rd largest country by land area and likely the largest by inhabitable land area with over 3,700,000 sq miles. China is also the most populace country on Earth with just under 1/5 of the world's population or 1,336,450,000 residents.
  • Reply 16 of 56
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    They dropped wi-fi to accomodate China so adding that chip might be doable.
  • Reply 17 of 56
    Okay, sincere question: How many of you guys who've expressed support for worldwide standards would be opposed to Apple releasing an Verizon iPhone?



    I'm not being snarky. I'm totally serious. It's the exact same issue: China Mobile uses a different signaling standard from what the iPhone uses, and so does Verizon.



    Me? I wish the damn mobile carriers would just get together on this, so any device can (at least technically) work on any network. But that's kinda like saying that everybody on the planet should drive on the same side of the road. The fact is that they don't, and that changing things so they did would cost a fortune, so it won't happen fast no matter what.
  • Reply 18 of 56
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Longterm planning suggests that TD-SCDMA is a better choice than CDMA2000. It looks like TD-SCDMA outpaced CDMA last year and CDMA2000 has even less subs as many carriers added 3GSM after CDMA or CDMA2000 to combat their limitations. I'd say that TD-SCDMA is likely to continue to grow and the "isolation" aspect is actually a benefit, not a hinderance, since the "isolation" is so incredibly vast* and looks to have a subscriber count larger than CDMA worldwide count.



    * China is the 3rd largest country by land area and likely the largest by inhabitable land area with over 3,700,000 sq miles. China is also the most populace country on Earth with just under 1/5 of the world's population or 1,336,450,000 residents.



    Just to throw another random thought into the mix, ... Apple, like many other companies, has been pursuing the idea of an all software radio for some time.



    The very underwhelming technology Apple ended up using in the iPad makes me doubt they have the chops to make this happen, but it would sure be nice. If the hardware could stay the same, and the software merely adjust itself for whatever network it happens to find itself on, then that seems like the Holy Grail of mobiles to me.
  • Reply 19 of 56
    optikoptik Posts: 25member
    Don't do it, Apple!
  • Reply 20 of 56
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tomfoolery View Post


    Okay, sincere question: How many of you guys who've expressed support for worldwide standards would be opposed to Apple releasing an Verizon iPhone?



    I'm not being snarky. I'm totally serious. It's the exact same issue: China Mobile uses a different signaling standard from what the iPhone uses, and so does Verizon.



    Me? I wish the damn mobile carriers would just get together on this, so any device can (at least technically) work on any network. But that's kinda like saying that everybody on the planet should drive on the same side of the road. The fact is that they don't, and that changing things so they did would cost a fortune, so it won't happen fast no matter what.



    There are different dynamics at play here. As previously stated China Mobile's subscriber numbers are larger and outpacing CDMA worldwide subscriber numbers.



    Verizon pales in comparison to China Mobile's size and potential and they are making the move to LTE which will be part of the iPhone within a few years. China Mobile grew their base by 20% of the US population last year and this single carrier is almost double the size of the US' complete subscriber totals with a lot more growth expected. On top of that, they appear to be willing to work with Apple while Verizon does not.



    Plus, I'd expect T-Mobile USA to get the iPhone before Verizon or Sprint simply because they are also GSM-based, only needing an extra radio chip to get the required 1700MHz spectrum for 3G. After that, I'd expect Sprint since they are desperate, with Verizon being last.



    However, while I don't think Verizon will get the iPhone this year I would welcome it as it will increase sales tremendously, will shoot the stock price up overnight, will get some people off AT&T's stressed network and we'll get to see how Verizon can handle such a heavy data load.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    Just to throw another random thought into the mix, ... Apple, like many other companies, has been pursuing the idea of an all software radio for some time.



    The very underwhelming technology Apple ended up using in the iPad makes me doubt they have the chops to make this happen, but it would sure be nice. If the hardware could stay the same, and the software merely adjust itself for whatever network it happens to find itself on, then that seems like the Holy Grail of mobiles to me.



    On paper, it certainly seems better than the Qualcomm World-Mode chip, but I have to wonder how efficient a SW version would be over a HW version.
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