China Mobile says still in iPhone talks with Apple

China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator, said on Wednesday it is still in negotiations with Apple over the sale of iPhones in China.

China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator, said on Wednesday it is still in negotiations with Apple over the sale of iPhones in China.

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"We really are still in talks with Apple...In our negotiations in the past, we insisted on sticking to our conditions," company chairman Wang Jianzhou told reporters on the sidelines of a regional mobile phone conference in Hong Kong.

"We are still very sincere about completing this negotiation."

Wang added that China Mobile was hoping to introduce different types of smartphones in the years ahead.

The "iPhone is only one type of smartphone. On the whole, we hope to turn all our future phones into smartphones. This would require the collective effort of our vendors," he said.

China Unicom, China Mobile's rival, became the first operator to bring iPhones into the world's largest mobile market when it started selling the iconic device in the country last month.

Unicom said earlier this month it had 5,000 iPhone users.

It had earlier said it hoped to sell five million of Apple's smartphones in three years in China, but experts have questioned how realistic that goal is in the world's biggest market for smuggled, "unlocked" and counterfeited iPhones.