Apple falls on China Mobile comment

Apple shares fell further yesterday after China Mobile chief executive Li Yue said he would not add the iPhone to the world's largest wireless network without a deal favourable for his firm.

"The business model and benefit sharing still need further discussion," Li said in Guangzhou.

Technical issues related to the carrier's home-grown third-generation network standard would also need to be resolved, he said.

The iPhone is not available to most users in China, as Apple has yet to reach an agreement with China Mobile, which had 703 million subscribers at the end of October, including 79.3 million users of high-speed, third-generation services that give smartphones faster internet access.

Apple's iPhone is available with the nation's two smaller carriers - China Unicom and China Telecom, both of which sell it with a subsidy. The new iPhone 5 will begin sales with those carriers next week.

"Li's comment suggests that China Mobile has no intention of simply gifting Apple access to its huge subscriber base without extracting a pound of flesh from Apple," said Teck Zhung Wong, a Singapore-based analyst with market research firm IDC.