Updated: [By Blake Robinson] Citing disagreements over revenue sharing, China Mobile and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) have ended their negotiations aimed at bringing the iPhone to China, according to Nanfang Daily (via Pacific Epoch). The news comes as not so much a shock but as a confirmation. The arrangement had been pegged for failure early on, due, in part, to China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou expressing trepidations about Apple’s revenue-sharing demands while slighting the nature of music phones.
But other efforts for iPhone distribution in China continue — D.Phone VP Jin Xin said in September that the Chinese cell phone superstore has already reached some agreement with Apple to carry the device if and when it reaches the Chinese market. A report today from qq.com (via Pacific Epoch) is a little murkier, saying that D.Phone has already added a special area for iPhone accessories in one Shanghai store and plans to add more but that it is “negotiating” to seel the handsets. Still, this suggests a strategy similar to that in the UK where Apple uses O2 as the carrier and Carphone Warehouse for additional retail outlets.
Update: China Mobile issued a statement denying early morning reports that talks had stalled with Apple Bloomberg has more.
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