If you have been keeping track, then you will know about the Germany issue with iPhone that we reported earlier; here is news on the iPhone China front now. Apparently a Chinese newspaper has reported that talks between Apple and China Mobile, China’s largest wireless carrier, have stalled over the issue of revenue sharing. In France and Germany there are laws that check the kind of monopolistic deal Apple has with AT&T in the U.S. Hence the devious Apple and the iPhone carriers have retorted by selling unlocked iPhones for almost three times the cost of locked phones. However, virtual mobile operator Debitel, which resells minutes it buys from Apple partner T-Mobile, said it would refund the difference between a locked and unlocked German iPhone. “China is an important market for cell phones and overall has to be figured into Apple’s worldwide strategy for the iPhone,” says Tim Bajarin, principal analyst for Creative Strategies”But it is a difficult market to penetrate and Apple would need China Mobile if they want to gain any serious traction in this emerging market.”

China Mobile president Wang Jianzhou has indicated that he isn’t interested in sharing subscriber revenues. “We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers,” Wang said at an Asian wireless conference. Apple is reportedly planning on selling the iPhone directly through Apple stores while it works on other carrier deals. “It will probably take serious compromises on the part of Apple and China Mobile or even a second-tier vendor if a deal is to be done to make it possible to have legitimate Apple iPhones offered in China,” Bajarin said. “But Apple can’t ignore China if it wants to be a global smartphone leader. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has estimated that AT&T pays between $6.50 and $18 per subscriber per month to Apple. He estimated the number will settle at $9 per subscription by the end of 2009. Those numbers come out to a whopping $4 billion a year to Apple, Munster estimated.
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