Greg Joswiak heads to China as China Unicom iPhone deal looms

Jonny Evans
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August 04, 2009
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Senior Apple staff will visit China to get into top level negotiations with China Unicom to discuss launch of the product in the country, local Chinese media reports this morning claim.

"Senior officials from Apple Inc are to visit China this week, and they haven't arrived in Beijing yet," a source told Sina.com. "Apple's branch company in China are ready for the reception, and informed China Unicom about this earlier.”

Executives from both firms are likely to discuss the launch strategy for the iPhone in China, with Apple officials also likely to meet with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

An International Business Times report informs a China Unicom team visited Apple HQ in March to negotiate terms for iPhone distribution. Apple’s away to China team is expected to be led by Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing.

China is a prize market, with over one billion mobile phone in use. However, at this point - while a Chinese model iPhone has been approved - China Unicom will not offer Apple a share of iPhone-generated revenue. This final point has been a sticking point against inking the deal until now. Negotiations have been proceeding for months.

Having achieved regulatory approval, iPhones for China are thought to be rolling of the production lines even now.

Meanwhile, in the UK, signs continue to emerge suggesting Apple’s exclusive deal with O2 is under threat. T-Mobile has begun flouting this deal by offering limited numbers of iPhone 3G’s to customers threatening to defect to O2 for the device.

T-Mobile has refused comment on this, but recent reports have claimed Apple may be preparing to allow sales of iPhone 3G’s through other networks, while leaving O2 as exclusive provider of the new iPhone 3GS model.

Comments (8)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 04, 2009 - 3:40am

Actually, as of 2007, China only has 547,286,000 mobile phones in use...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 04, 2009 - 7:58am

@Noob ... you said << "as of 2007, China only has 547,286,000 mobile phones in use"...>>

Things change rapidly in China. There were 695.2 million wireless subscribers in China as of June 2009

http://www.marbridgeconsulting.com/statistics.html

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 06, 2009 - 12:01am

that's still not 1 Billion.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 06, 2009 - 12:01am

that's still not 1 Billion.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 06, 2009 - 12:02am

that's still not 1 Billion.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 06, 2009 - 12:02am

that's still not 1 Billion.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 04, 2009 - 8:31am

This will not be the first Apple team from Cupertino to visit China on an iPhone trek. In April '09, I believe that several senior Apple execs dropped in to visit with China Unicom. This reciprocated China Unciom's March 8th - 18th meetings with Apple in Cupertino.

I'm cautiously optimistic that an iPhone deal will be concluded soon. My guess for announcement date is at summer's end with an iPhone in China launch in the Fall.

There has been some recent buzz (Sina.com article) over the possibility that Apple may be ceding delivery of apps and music to China Unicom's platform. I'm not inclined to believe this as China Unicom has a long way to go in building out their wireless value added services platform. Integration between iPhone and platform needs to be seamless not kluge.

iphonerulez (not verified) | August 04, 2009 - 10:48am

I've heard extremely differing opinions about how many iPhones will be sold in China. From a low of one million a year to a conservative high of 12 million a year. I'm hoping for at least three million a year for starters. I feel certain that the Chinese can probably afford to purchase the iPhone itself, but can they afford the monthly carrier plans. A setback, I feel, is the lack of WiFi and the customer gets no breaks in playing with the iPhone on a quick WiFi connection at lower cost. I hope the iPhone is good with Chinese input. I hear that the app used for input is very good, but will the Chinese take to it.

I'm an Apple investor and although I want to see the iPhone in China, I'll go with Apple if they decide it isn't a good deal due to having to give up a lot of profit. I think the iPhone can do a lot for China Unicom if the Chinese can afford it. There are lots of other cellphones to choose from but hopefully the iPhone will stand out and become a status piece for well-to-do Chinese users.