China Mobile CEO - Wang Jianzhou
With apologies to long time iPhonAsia readers … but once again (for the umpteenth time) China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou revealed (WSJ March 4, 2010) that China Mobile is in “talks” with Apple to offer iPhone.
Apple’s deal with China Unicom is non-exclusive and it’s possible that one day China Mobile and Apple will indeed come to terms on an iPhone deal. Summer of 2010 would be good timing.
If Apple and China Mobile reach an agreement, it is more likely that the deal will be to offer consumers a low-priced EDGE 2G iPhone. Why 2G? EDGE is a very reliable network used by 500+ million China Mobile consumers. Despite substantial state backing, the newly launched TDSCDMA (China Mobile’s 3G network) has not motivated enough mobile consumers to upgrade to 3G (requiring the purchase of a TDSCDMA capable handset) and the China developed 3G standard may not be long for this world. TD-LTE 4G will likely supplant TDSCDMA by 2012. In my opinion, Apple would only reluctantly add TDSCDMA support in a special “for China Mobile” iPhone. If Apple does agree to add a chipset that supports TDSCDMA, then you can be sure that the deal involves a massive pre-purchase commitment by China Mobile … good for Apple (AAPL).
China Unicom says . In theory, a substantial price drop might signal “inventory clearing” for a new model iPhone. But evidently a price drop is not imminent, and if it happens, it could be months down the road.
Even before iPhone officially launched in China, there was considerable buzz in China’s tech press suggesting that Apple would ultimately come to some form of compromise with China’s telecom authorities and be allowed to launch a WiFi-enabled iPhone in China. That day may be coming as soon as late summer 2010 (timeline is purely my guess). Earlier this week, China Unicom Chairman, Chang Xiaobing, 
The hurdle in the Fall of 2009 was China’s highly restrictive “WiFi on handsets” policy promoted and enforced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Prior to the Spring of 2009, WiFi was expressly forbidden on mobile devices with cellular (calling) service. In April 2009 there was a compromise policy authorized by the MIIT that allowed WiFi on handsets as long as the phone 
The rules (new policy allowing WAPI/WiFi in combination) changed very late in the game for Apple and it’s entirely possible that Apple had insufficient time (before Oct 2009 launch) to address the technical issues associated with building a WAPI/WiFi iPhone for China. Moreover, it runs against Apple’s DNA to build a special model iPhone solely for one market … even if that market is China. But … never say never! The current model iPhone for China Unicom is already a special production run (no WiFi chip + many “for China” apps preloaded). If China Unicom commits to a sufficiently large iPhone pre-purchase, then Apple may entertain the idea of a WAPI/WiFi iPhone. There were reports (later denied) last August that China Uniciom had agreed to pre-purchase 
We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.
It is interesting that Apple has chosen to focus on HTC in this (initial?) lawsuit. This action is clearly a shot across Google and Palm’s bow and may give other handset manufactures pause before adopting Android or any other OS that utilizes multi-touch or other Apple IP.
You have to ask yourself a simple question Google/HTC/Palm/Moto/Nokia, was that five Apple patents or was it six? Seeing as Apple’s multi-touch is the most powerful patent on the planet, you have to ask yourself one question … Do you feel lucky? Well do ya?”
Answer: 
While generally happy with Foxconn, Apple knows that they have a bunch of Mac and “i-device” eggs in one basket via Foxconn and they may (just a rumor) have awarded the “next gen” iPhone (iPhone 4G) contract to 
