Rumor: Nokia to stop selling handsets to Best Buy's new Chinese store

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) recently launched its largest-ever retail store as it entered the country of China in a huge way. The largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. probably wants to make a big splash in the Chinese marketplace like every other red-blooded company whose out for more sales in this rapidly developing marketplace.

But what Best Buy will probably find out (and I'm sure it already knows), is that the China marketplace is one of ultra-cheap prices and bartering between buyer and seller for every single penny of a commerce transaction. Proof of this concept was proven recently, as Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK) -- the largest producer of wireless handsets in the world -- was rumored to have left Best Buy's new China store out to dry since the retailer apparently was selling Nokia's handsets below a certain price. In the U.S., this is called "minimum advertised price," or MAP.

Will certain manufacturers start bailing on Best Buy due to the retailer's pricing stance in this new market that doesn't know the meaning of the word "regular price?" 2007 will be interesting in Best Buy-land, that is for sure -- at least in China, anyway.