Why do we assume that to get into China Apple has to go through a carrier? Apple needs to export iPhones, not this US model of carrier enslavement of devices. Nokia and Motorolla have sold hundreds of millions of handsets in China without having any of them locked. And the voice and data revenues per customer are much lower in China anyway, so Apple is keeping itself out of the world's biggest market by forcing an issue that probably won't generate that much revenue for them even if they could dictate their terms. When China Mobile has 350+ million customers, they aren't going to let a co. with a single luxury phone, no matter how cool, rewrite their business model. It's a damn shame Apple is trying to export the US model of carriers locking phones to the world.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Walter @ Jan 17th 2008 1:22AM
Why do we assume that to get into China Apple has to go through a carrier? Apple needs to export iPhones, not this US model of carrier enslavement of devices. Nokia and Motorolla have sold hundreds of millions of handsets in China without having any of them locked. And the voice and data revenues per customer are much lower in China anyway, so Apple is keeping itself out of the world's biggest market by forcing an issue that probably won't generate that much revenue for them even if they could dictate their terms. When China Mobile has 350+ million customers, they aren't going to let a co. with a single luxury phone, no matter how cool, rewrite their business model. It's a damn shame Apple is trying to export the US model of carriers locking phones to the world.
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