Sohu.com published a photo of what appears to be an iPhone prototype running on the China Mobile network. If it isn’t fake — and we take such things with a Great Wall sized grain of salt — it suggests the iPhone maybe coming to the world’s largest carrier sooner rather than later.

The phone appears to run baseband software with version number 06.10.01, which hasn’t been released yet. It also lacks an IMEI number, just like an iPhone 4 prototype we spotted on eBay. Evaluation devices normally have no IMEI number.

Apple would most-likely choose to go with a TD-SCDMA iPhone before getting into 4G territory in China if this is the real deal, but there’s really no clear way of telling from the photo. There are, however, noticeable errors seen in the image such as blurred UI elements, incorrect font spacing etc. Look at the resolution of the time on the status bar compared to the 3G indicator as a good example.

So what do you think? Real, fake, or really fake?

[Sohu via 9to5Mac]

China Mobile Chairman, Wang Jianzhou, was quoted yesterday saying that Apple will support next-gen TD-LTE.

These two years we have been discussing the issue. Right now the situation is moving forward. Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE.

China Mobile, has been negotiating with Apple for years, to develop a TD-SCDMA supported iPhone for their current 3G network, and TD-LTE for their future 4G network.

China Mobile hasn’t signed a deal with Apple yet because Apple doesn’t currently support TD-SCDMA, which China Mobile use for their 3G network, but with Apple’s new CDMA phone for Verizon, Wang hopes that Apple will consider supporting TD-SCDMA.

We hope that when they develop the next-generation models, since Apple can create CDMA, they can also consider developing TD-SCDMA.

The iPhone is currently only available in China on China Unicom, which lacks the subscriber base that China Mobile has.

Given the size of the Chinese market and Apple’s huge growth there over the last few quarters, any chance Apple might support LTE sooner than we think?

[Reuters]

While it’s easy to think the iPhone 3GS is everywhere now, TiPb still gets email asking when it will be in India, and on the largest carrier in the largest market in the world, China Mobile.

Well Macworld tells us Airtel has finally announced they’ll be bringing the iPhone 3GS to India:

New Delhi, March 19, 2010 : Bharti Airtel and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3GS, the fastest most powerful iPhone yet, to India in the coming months. For information please visit www.airtel.in/iphone3gs. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone .

Meanwhile, Financial Times [registration required] reports that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is still interested as well, providing Apple addresses their special radio needs:

“including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do – RIM is doing it”. But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.

MacRumors points out that while China Mobile is a monster, their 3G customer base remains small, but should grow from 3.4 to 10 million this year.

Either way, these represent two holes in Apple’s iPhone coverage and it’s nice to see at least one of them getting filled.

In a move designed to make even notorious Wi-Fi stripper Verizon seem liberal by comparison, China Mobile’s outstanding demand that Apple strip the iPhone of both Wi-Fi and 3G if they want to sell to the worlds largest carrier just got an uncomfortable shot of “maybe” via Apple Insider:

while there’s no concrete information to suggest Apple would agree to make such concessions, references to “ChinaBrick” discovered in betas of iPhone Software 3.0 leave room for debate.

Also at issue, China Mobile wants control of the regional App Store. Without 3G or Wi-Fi, would there even be a point?

And we’d joked about AT&T…

Aiya! There’s still no iPhone officially available in the world’s most populous country, the People’s Republic of China. Sure, Apple actually sells unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong and Taiwan in an attempt to lure the most affluent Chinese customers to their platform — and lets not forget the monstrous iPhone 2G black market — but absent homegrown carrier subsidies and support, it will never attain most-favored device status.

Previously the problem was China Mobile wanting to strip out the 3G and WiFi. The latest holdup? The App Store, according to Interfaxchina (via Ars). China Mobile doesn’t seem to like the idea of Apple running its own software service right on the phone, and would prefer to handle all that on their own end. Heh. So would AT&T, Rogers, Vodafone, and all the other oppressive, myopic, oligopolistic carriers around the world. The lure of the iPhone and its data-gulping customers let Apple one-inch-punch their way right through that tired old carcass, but China…?

China’s still wearing the iron vest of feature control furor.

So the raised platform is set, the combatants have taken their corners, and the rules remain: knockout or knockoff. Who’s going to win this battle?

If this is not bizarre, I don’t know what is. Customers looking to purchase a iPhone 3G in China will soon be able to do so. Just a little catch though, minus the 3G and toss in the omission of WiFi.

China Mobile does not have a 3G network so I understand them asking Apple to disable 3G but going a step further asking to disabling WiFi as well?! That leaves all of the owners of the iPhone 3G (don’t forget to take away that 3G) with a slow 2G data connection. China Mobile might as well sell the iPhone 3G as a very nice paperweight to all of their customers. Exactly why China Mobile would disable WiFi is way beyond me.

Apple ships the iPhone all over the world, so it is highly doubtful that a hardware change would be made simply for China Mobile. So how would these features be disabled? Software… Which means potential customers could still turn to hackers to gain back access to at least WiFi. It would only be a matter of time…

(Via Gizmodo)

If it’s a day that ends in a “y”, then its likely the status of the Apple / China Mobile talks has changed! On again/off again seems to be on again, with reports now saying the obstacles have been hurdled, the chasm bridged, the bamboo curtain rolled up to let in some sun.

But can China Mobile beat competitor China Unicom, or even the massive gray market, to the punch?

Only time, and probably a bazillion more flip flops, will tell.

Read

As the iPhone bandies around the world, many Wall Street analysts have been wondering when China Mobile would be invited to join the likes of O2, T-Mobile and Orange to the exclusive iPhone party.

Well, according to dBTechno, it might be sooner than we think.

As exciting as this news could be for Apple, what with 350 some odd million China Mobile customers helping reach Steve Jobs imposed 10 million iPhone goal, there are potential pitfalls that could stagnate the deal. For one, the price point might be out of reach for the average Chinese citizen who would have to make 2 month’s salary to even purchase an iPhone. And that’s not even counting foreign carrier’s exorbitant and limited data costs.

But with a reported 400,000 unlocked iPhones currently in use on China Mobile (not even counting all the knock-offs), there is undoubtedly a market for iPhones. And to imagine the possibilities of a real live, breathing, fingerprint free iPhone in the hands of 350 million ready-to-buy consumers has got to make Apple stockholders seeing green.

rener points us to this story: that roughly 400,000 iPhones are showing up on China Mobile’s network. That’s 1 in 10. That’s alotta iPhones:

According to China Mobile, the biggest wireless carrierin China, there were about 400,000 cracked iPhones using its cellular network service at the end of 2007, representing one out of every 10 iPhone shipments announced officially by Apple. – In-Stat – Information Alert

We’ve treaded lightly on the issue of the iPhone Gray Market and the question of just how many unlocked iPhones are floating about (and why these missing iPhones matter) – but it’s time to stop treading lightly and stomp: Apple either needs to get more carriers (especially China Mobile) on board with the iPhone to staunch this wound or they need to finally admit that unlocked iPhones are still sold iPhones and the lost revenue sharing ain’t a big deal.