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Apple forced to play ball with China Mobile

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While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has had relatively smooth going in Europe introducing the iPhone, things are apparently less so in China (and Russia) where it is being reported: China Mobile to Buy Out iPhone in China.

The negotiations between China Mobile Ltd (NYSE: CHL) have led to many compromises on the part of Apple. To get the deal done it agreed to have no more sharing from toll revenues of cooperative carriers, and the Wi-Fi function of the multimedia smartphone is to be deleted.

Although it has been widely reported the Chinese anxiously want to sell iPhones to their hundreds of millions of potential customers -- something Apple has been vigorously pursuing -- it took several rounds of negotiations after which Apple got the short end of the stick.

Just one more company bending to the will of the Chinese. I wonder how long it will be before they reverse engineer the phone using Apple as another pawn in the game of technology transfer? I wonder if there is anything that should or can be done about it?

I'm sure after all is said and done Apple got the best deal it could. I just hope it works out as well as it envisioned.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of AAPL.

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 08:10 AM

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