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China Mobile Likely to First Launch 2G iPhone in China

July 1st, 2008
2:57 pm

China Mobile Ltd. (SEHK: 0941 and NYSE: CHL) is likely to introduce the 2G iPhone to China initially, said market observers.

China Mobile is in contacts with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), which is not insisting on its revenue sharing business model, said Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief executive officer for China Mobile, in an earlier interview.

Absence of the revenue sharing policy eliminated the biggest obstacle in the possible partnership between the two companies, and the remaining problems are some practical issues, said Rainie Lei, China Mobile spokeswoman. However, no timetable has been set for the rollout of the products and which version will be launched has not been decided yet, according to Ms. Lei.

It is not possible for Apple to debut TD-SCDMA iPhones in China when China’s homegrown 3G TD-SCDMA standard is still in the trials, predicted an analyst at Wanfang Consult. On the contrary, China Mobile has a well-developed 2G network and numerous high-end users who may be interested in the 2G iPhone.

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Softbank Mobile Announces iPhone Prices (Japan)

June 24th, 2008
2:55 pm

Softbank Mobile Corp. on Monday announced the prices of Apple Inc.’s iPhone mobile handsets to be launched in Japan on July 11.

With a special discount that comes with payments in 24 installments, the total cost will be 23,040 yen for a handset with 8 gigabytes of memory and 34,560 yen for a 16GB handset.

The prices will be for customers newly subscribing to Softbank Mobile’s services.

The company, a unit of Internet and telecommunications business conglomerate Softbank Corp. , is considering offering different price plans for existing subscribers who will switch to the iPhone handsets.

Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank and Softbank Mobile, told reporters that iPhone is the most powerful tool that goes beyond the limits of a cell phone.

Son said that the iPhone handsets will likely be sold out instantly after the July launch and that there will be shortages for a while.

The company expects to incur losses from the iPhone business for the time being and intends to cover the loss with revenue from other operations, Son said.

Still, Son said that many subscribers to mobile phone services of NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. are expected to switch to Softbank Mobile following the launch of the iPhone handsets.

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