Submitted by Chad Shmukler on
Despite earlier reports that potential talks between Apple and China Mobile about bringing the iPhone to China Mobile's 350 million subscribers had fallen through, a report out of Reuters today indicates that the two parties may soon be sitting down together.
According to the report, China Mobile's CEO Wang Jianzhou indicated that the company was still open to working out a partnership with Apple. He stated, "as long as our customers want this kind of product, we will keep all options open". Jianzhou was clear, however, that there were no talks between the two companies yet underway.
Many AAPL investors were critical earlier in the year when talks supposedly broke down because Apple was being too forceful with its revenue sharing model, which reportedly caused China Mobile to call off the talks. These reports were never confirmed. Apple has indicated it is approaching each partnership individually, and is not married to any one revenue model.
China Mobile's subscriber base of more than 350 million individuals is larger than the entire population of the United States.