China's Unicom's talks with Apple Inc. over the launch of iPhone 3G in China has not made substantial progress as Apple remains unchanged on its revenue sharing demand in the voice business, a source said yesterday.

"China Unicom's senior management has lowered the importance of iPhone in the company's development strategies," the source said.

China Unicom and Apple didn't make direct confirmation yesterday.

However, signs have shown that China Unicom and Apple's divergences go beyond the revenue sharing.

iPhone was absent from China's Unicom's launching ceremony which started trials of its 3G networks on May 17. China Unicom announced on the same day the formal entry into the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) of Google and is now developing its own cell phone operating system known as Uniplus based on Google's Android.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also made it clear recently that WIFI-incorporated mobile internet terminals sold in the domestic market must also include WAPI function. This proves to be another obstacle for Apple's iPhone which features WIFI function. Apple needs to make specially-developed iPhones which both have WIFI and WAPI functions for the China market.

National Business Daily carried the Chinese story here at http://www.nbd.com.cn/newshtml/20090609/20090609031540689.html

(China.org.cn June 9, 2009)