Apple and world's largest carrier still in talks for a deal, but there is no rush for Cupertino

Sure, Apple would love to have a shot at the 611 million subscribers that make China Mobile the world's largest mobile carrier. Heck, even without an official agreement, there are 10 million unlocked copies of Apple's iconic touchscreen handset squatting on China Mobile's 2G/EDGE pipeline. While China Mobile entices those unlocked iPhone users to sign up with the carrier using gift card promotions with Wi-Fi service, only China Unicom's network is officially allowed to run the Apple iPhone in the country.

If Apple does shake hands with China Mobile, it might have to build a unique iPhone that will run over China Mobile's 3G TD-SCDMA network. This should be something familiar to T-Mobile customers in the States where the nation's fourth largest carrier uses a 3G GSM network not compatible with any Apple iPhone unit. But it seems that Apple is in no hurry to lock itself into building a new model of the iPhone that would have connectivity to China Mobile's 3G network. Shaw Wu of  brokerage firm Sterne Agee says that instead of working on a proprietary handset for world's largest carrier, Apple is testing a 4G TD-LTE iPhone that will work over China Mobile's high-speed 4G network.

China's third large carrier (and the world's largest CDMA carrier) China Telecom, also has been rumored to be talking with Apple with speculation that the carrier will have the device to sell in the middle of next year. Earlier this year there were reports that all three carriers would be offering the Apple iPhone by the end of this year, but Wu says not to expect China Telecom to become an ofdficial Apple iPhone supplier in China until the middle of 2012. No date was mentioned for when we might see the talks between Apple and China Mobile reach fruition although it would seem that Apple has 611 million reason why it should want to close that deal.

source: AppleInsider