Apple in iPhone talks with China Mobile

Apple is in talks with China Mobile, the worlds largest mobile phone network, to offer the iPhone to millions of Chinese consumers.

Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile, confirmed that the two companies had entered discussions, indicating that both sides are keen to ink a deal.China Mobile rules a whopping 67 percent of the Chinese telecommunications market, with over 660 million customers, but lack of support for the iPhone is seen as a contributing factor to a steady drop in customers, who are going to China Unicom and China Telecom, both of which offer Apples flagship device. This deal is therefore extremely significant for the long-term success of the company.However, there are problems with compatibility between the iPhone and China Mobiles 3G network,which employs the unique TD-SCDMA standard. This means Apple will be forced to offer only 2G on its devices.This problem is expected to be resolved with the introduction of the next iPhone and LTE in China, but the latter is unlikely to happen until 2014 or later, according to analysts.Source: BBC