CHINA Mobile has not started formal negotiations with Apple Inc over the iPhone, despite the intention of both sides to cooperate.
Details about issues such as business models and commercialization have prevented the companies from entering formal talks. No time frame was specified, China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia.
"Our door will remain open as long as there is customer demand," said the head of China's largest cell-phone carrier during a panel discussion on the telecom industry.
Apple launched its iPhone - a hand-held device that combines a mobile phone, a wide-screen iPod and an Internet device - in the United States in January 2007. It planned to launch it into the Asian market this year.
Wang said China Mobile subscribers currently totaled more than 380 million, nearly 30 percent of the country's total population. The number had been expanding 6 to 7 million per month, mostly fueled by consumers in rural areas, he added.