China Unicom

China Mobile has been meeting secretly with Steve Jobs

Apple reportedly in highest-level talks with the world's largest mobile operator

At a news conference following release of its first-half earnings, China Mobile (CHL) revealed Thursday that it has met several times with Steve Jobs to talk about Apple (AAPL) making an iPhone that would support its proprietary 3G standard, Reuters reports.

Officially, Apple sells iPhones in the world's largest cell phone market only through China Unicom (CHU), the country's second largest MORE

Piper Jaffray: Apple's earnings set to grow 25%-30% per year through 2015

The key, says Gene Munster, is the iPhone's addressable subscriber base

Apple's (AAPL) shares have dropped $24.52 (6.8%) in the past three trading days for reasons that have nothing to do with the company's underlying business. In a note to clients issued Wednesday, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster tries to bring the subject back to Apple's fundamentals.

Most investors, he writes, believe Apple's earnings growth will slow to 15%-20% in 2012, and that's MORE

China's love affair with Apple

What is it with the Chinese and their iPhones?

The signs were everywhere: The steady stream of human traffic from New York's Chinatown to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. The housewives arrested at the Hong Kong crossing with dozens of units strapped under their dresses. The scalper fights that broke out when Apple's Beijing store briefly lifted its two-iPhones-per-customer limit.

No wonder Apple (AAPL) decided several years ago to make China MORE

China runs out of iPhone 4s

Sold out at Apple Stores, authorized resellers and China Unicom

Now those stories about Chinese housewives smuggling Apple (AAPL) iPhones onto the mainland make a little more sense.

It's not just that the phones can be had in Hong Kong tax-free, it's that they can be had at all.

Ticonderoga Securities' Brian White, back from his recent China tour, reports in a note to clients Monday that the iPhone 4 is sold out MORE

China Unicom says it has more than 1 million iPhone contract users

Nearly three out of four switched from giant China Mobile, according to China's No. 2 carrier

A Deutsche Bank note to clients issued Wednesday has culled several interesting Apple (AAPL) data points from Chinese-language reports:

China Unicom (CHU), Apple's exclusive iPhone carrier on the mainland, claims it now has more than 1 million iPhone contract users
73% of those users are also China Mobile (CHL) subscribers, something the carrier knows because customers must MORE

Analyst: China catching 'Apple fever'

Reading the tea leaves, he senses a thaw between Apple and giant China Mobile

Ticonderoga Securities' Brian White, fresh from an October trip to China, writes that the buzz surrounding the iPhone 4 and iPad there is stronger than ever.

"Clearly," he writes, "China is catching 'Apple fever.'"

He cites conversations with China Unicom (CHU), Apple's (AAPL) exclusive partner and the second largest carrier (162 million subscribers) in the world's largest mobile phone MORE

Massive crowds greet iPhone 4 in China

Over 200,000 pre-orders and a queue more than 1,000 customers long

What a difference a year makes.

Last November, when Apple (AAPL) first starting selling the iPhone in China -- the world's largest cell phone market with nearly 800 million subscribers -- analysts termed the launch a "disappointment." The queues of customers were underwhelming, and after four days of sales, China Unicom (CHU) had reportedly managed to sign up only 5,000 subscribers.

Contrast MORE

Apple redoubles its efforts in China

Opening two new stores and launching the iPhone 4 on Saturday

"We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn't care about China," Lenovo CEO Liu Chuanzhi told the Financial Times in July. "If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble."

Comments like that may help explain why Apple (AAPL) has been making extra sure the MORE

The iPad is coming to China

Apple is stepping up its product releases in the world's largest mobile market

China's Caixin Media group reported Monday that China Unicom (CHU) has won the right to sell the iPad -- both the Wi-Fi and the 3G versions -- in China. No date for the product's release was given.

The report follows news that China Unicom will be selling the iPhone 4 in early September, less than three months after that MORE

Wi-Fi iPhones coming to China Monday

China Unicom overcomes a key impediment to sales in the world's largest mobile market

China Unicom, Apple's exclusive carrier in the world's largest cellphone market, announced Friday that it will begin selling iPhones equipped with Wi-Fi receivers on Monday.

This could be the breakthrough both companies have been waiting for. China Unicom, the country's second-largest cellphone company with some 315 million subscribers, began selling iPhones in Oct. 2008, but government restrictions prevented MORE