June 27 - 9:20am EDT   Past divisions between Apple and cellular carrier China Mobile are narrowing, Reuters reports. For months, informal talks to bring the iPhone to China have been stalled, as the two companies could not agree on fundamental points of interest. These have been resolved, says China Mobile spokeswoman Rainie Lei. The largest obstacle is said to have been revenue sharing, something Chinese companies do not practice as a rule. [full story]

May 26 - 10:40pm EDT   Orange is giving its French iPhone customers incentives to trade up to the new model, according to news from multiple readers of PCInpact. The carrier is described as calling its customers giving them an offer that would encourage them to trade up to the iPhone. One offer would see users trade in their 2G models for the next-generation version as well as paying 50 Euros; a second would let them keep the older model but buy the new one with a "generous" subsidy from the carrier, according to reports. [full story]

April 21 - 4:00pm EDT   Google remains the number one company in the world in terms of estimated brand value, says the research group Millward Brown Optimor. Google has held its spot for a third consecutive year, with a recent valuation of $86.1 billion, an increase of 30 percent over earlier results. General Electric holds second place in the current survey at $71.4 billion, while Microsoft is valued at $70.9 billion. The results are based on interviews with over a million people worldwide. [full story]

April 14 - 9:20am EDT   Apple and China's largest cellular company, China Mobile, have yet to begin formal negotiations over the iPhone in spite of mutual interests, say reports. The latter company's chairman, Wang Jianzhou, revealed the information at this weekend's Boao Forum conference, explaining that there is no current timeframe for a Chinese iPhone. He further states that while the companies may have had informal conversations in the past, disputes over business models have kept the two corporations from making progress. [full story]

March 28 - 10:10am EDT   China Mobile on Friday said it had started testing the country's own 3G network, offering its first native high-speed cellular access. A limited but public trial will see about 20,000 cellphones and 5,000 PC adapter cards in use that will prove the feasibility of TD-SCDMA, a new standard developed inside China meant to serve as an alternative to HSPA and other Western-made (and thus more costly to license) formats. The trial will start in Beijing and several other major Chinese cities, but has no fixed end date. [full story]

March 3 - 9:15am EST   Interest in the iPhone continues to exist at China Mobile, despite no progress with Apple, according to the former company's CEO. The two parties broke off negotiations in January, at least temporarily denying Apple access to the Chinese market; although no official explanations were given, it is believed that China Mobile is refusing to submit to revenue sharing, a practice common with other iPhone carriers but unprecedented in China. Businesses in the country are in fact hostile to the concept, some reports have suggested. [full story]

February 18 - 11:05am EST   As many as 400,000 or more iPhones are already operating in China, according to a report issued by In-Stat. The research firm cites figures from China Mobile, the country's largest cellular carrier, which claims that the 400,000 figure was reached by the end of 2007, representing a full tenth of all iPhone shipments confirmed by Apple. In-Stat notes that this is four times what it had expected to find. [full story]

February 12 - 11:35pm EST   In what seems to be an enormous shift in the race for a 4G wireless standard, China Mobile on Wednesday is expected to show its support for the LTE, or Long Term Evolution, 4G wireless technology. Should this prove to be true, LTE will have accrued support from China Mobile, Vodafone, Verizon, and, peripherally, AT&T, according to Yahoo News. Arun Sarin, CEO for Vodafone, expects that WiMax – one of LTE's competing standards – will be rolled in to the LTE standard, as the UK-based company deploys its 4G networks in 2010. [full story]

January 14 - 9:40am EST   Apple and China Mobile have broken off all talks over the latter carrying the iPhone, Reuters reports. The iPhone is thus unlikely to ship to China in the foreseeable future, and unless the companies reconcile their differences, Apple will also be denied access to the 350 million subscribers China Mobile can provide. No reason for the split has been given; it has been suspected, though, that as hinted in earlier reports, China Mobile stood up to Apple demands for revenue sharing. Apple has traditionally insisted on collecting a portion of the income from each iPhone, as well as subscription fees. [full story]