Briefing.com finally catch up on the news:

09:13   AAPL Apple: Latest on China Mobile iPhone talks (184.29 )  -Update-

Macworld.com reports that talks between China Mobile (CHL) and Apple to bring the iPhone to that country have failed, citing a report from the Southern Daily newspaper. China Mobile’s CEO is reported as saying the “iPhone model is not suitable for China,” but sources claim the real reason talks have not gone well to this point is because of differences the companies have over revenue sharing… However, Bloomberg is reporting that China Mobile is still in talks with Apple, denying that talks between the two companies have ended.

Briefing.com said AAPL was a short yesterday on the “news” that CHL had ended talks. What now, its a long trade? .. no news from Briefing.com on that front yet - I guess they’re still trying to front-run the trade.

09:22   AAPL Apple: D.Phone the new iPhone distributor? - Pacific Epoch (184.29 )  -Update-

Pacific Epoch reports Chinese phone supermarket D.Phone is negotiating with Apple to sell iPhones in D.Phone stores, reports qq.com. D.Phone has established a special area displaying iPhone accessories in one Shanghai D.Phone store and plans to add the product areas to more D.Phone stores before year end, according to a D.Phone executive. In September, D.Phone vice president Jin Xin said that D.Phone had partnered with Apple to sell iPhones and Apple wireless value-added services in D.Phone stores if and when the products were sold in China.

Hard to know what to believe about all of this China chatter regarding iPhone. But one thing’s for sure—where there’s smoke there’s fire. And with the Olympics being such an obvious target date, it seems likely that something is going to happen within the next six months. Not news, I know. But still just so terribly exciting.

[quote author=“lumi”]Hard to know what to believe about all of this China chatter regarding iPhone. But one thing’s for sure—where there’s smoke there’s fire. And with the Olympics being such an obvious target date, it seems likely that something is going to happen within the next six months. Not news, I know. But still just so terribly exciting.

Pretty much as expected, everyone is playing hardball, but China Mobile just blinked by having to issue a denial that it had terminated discussions, thereby looking like the weaker hand. They’ll be furious at having to disclose their interest in this manner - it undermines their bargaining position and strengthens Apple’s with the other carriers like Unicom.

Steve is a master negotiating strategist - he’s outflanking some of the canniest, wiliest and most corrupt business people on the planet in Asia. Winning won’t come easy, but boy is it going to be worth playing the long game.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“lumi”]Hard to know what to believe about all of this China chatter regarding iPhone. But one thing’s for sure—where there’s smoke there’s fire. And with the Olympics being such an obvious target date, it seems likely that something is going to happen within the next six months. Not news, I know. But still just so terribly exciting.

Pretty much as expected, everyone is playing hardball, but China Mobile just blinked by having to issue a denial that it had terminated discussions, thereby looking like the weaker hand. They’ll be furious at having to disclose their interest in this manner - it undermines their bargaining position and strengthens Apple’s with the other carriers like Unicom.

Steve is a master negotiating strategist - he’s outflanking some of the canniest, wiliest and most corrupt business people on the planet in Asia. Winning won’t come easy, but boy is it going to be worth playing the long game.

Interesting to note that CHL rose on the news. China stock mkt was DOWN last night on news that Beijing agreed to stop subsidizing Chinese companies. They could have filibustered by going the WTO route that would have taken 3 years

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Steve is a master negotiating strategist - he’s outflanking some of the canniest, wiliest and most corrupt business people on the planet in Asia. Winning won’t come easy, but boy is it going to be worth playing the long game.

He is a “worthy adversary” plus it certainly helps that the device he created is already called “Ai Feng” on the Chinese black market.

[quote author=“lumi”]Hard to know what to believe about all of this China chatter regarding iPhone. But one thing’s for sure—where there’s smoke there’s fire. And with the Olympics being such an obvious target date, it seems likely that something is going to happen within the next six months. Not news, I know. But still just so terribly exciting.

I can imagine fans siting in the stands at one Olympic event watching the real-time action at another on their iPhones. Widget based stats, etc. also likely. Expect a lot of camera time for the iPhone during the games.

Munster sees an 85% chance of a MacBook thin at Macworld Expo, and estimates only 250k iPhones will be sold in the entire European market this quarter (I have to say I think he is nuts).

Piper ups likelihood of ultra-portable at Macworld, comments on iPhone
By Slash Lane
Published: 10:00 AM EST

Investment bank Piper Jaffray said Friday it now believes there is as an 85 percent likelihood that Apple at the upcoming Macworld Expo in January will finally take the wraps off its long-rumored ultra-portable MacBook.

“As Macworld approaches, reports of an ultraportable MacBook are following patterns of previously expected products that eventually materialized,” analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients. “We believe these reports are legitimate and continue to expect Apple to introduce a MacBook with a significantly smaller form factor.”

Earlier this month, AppleInsider cited well-respected sources who, following nearly two years of internal development on Apple’s part, are finally pinning the thin and lightweight 13-inch sub-notebook for an unveiling on January 15, 2008 as part of the company’s annual Macworld Expo announcements.

Munster, who dubbed the ultra-portable MacBook his “hot topic of the month,” had previously estimated that there was a 75 percent chance the notebook would make an appearance at the conference.

Meanwhile, the analyst also used his note to clients on Friday to offer a roundup of recent ongoings with Apple’s overseas iPhone launches, noting that Cupertino-based company’s three carrier partners in the Europe each expect to sell about 100,000 iPhones by the end of the year.

“Collectively, we were expecting the European iPhone launches to add 250,000 to December iPhone sales, but if Apple sells 100,000+ iPhones in the UK, Germany and France, there would likely be upside to our iPhone estimates,” he advised clients. “Thus far, it appears as though iPhone units in Europe are not exceeding the carriers’ expectations; however, the carriers’ estimates are meaningfully higher than our initial estimate of 250,000 in Europe.”

Only Orange said they expect to sell “100k phones” this holiday season. O2 said they hope to sell 250k, and T-Mobile I think said 200k.

I think Munster has failed to acknowledge the intense interest in the iPhone outside of the three Euro countries in which it has been launched, and the fact that these people can now buy an unlocked iPhone from France with relative ease. That’s Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg - all of which neighbour France -  and anyone else visiting Paris this quarter.

I also think he’s underestimating demand in Europe in the 3 launch countries generally.

I also think he’s underestimating demand in Europe in the 3 launch countries generally.

Hope you’re right, but I’m sure not holding my breath—maybe I’m too influenced by the news reports I’ve seen. I just wonder if the *absence* of any real positive reporting about sales may indicate a slow start in Europe (Paris and London being the exceptions). If we had posters here saying they continue to witness steady iPhone sales outside of Paris and London at the smaller outlets and in smaller cities, that would be a big positive.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Munster sees an 85% chance of a MacBook thin at Macworld Expo, and estimates only 250k iPhones will be sold in the entire European market this quarter (I have to say I think he is nuts).

Piper ups likelihood of ultra-portable at Macworld, comments on iPhone
By Slash Lane
Published: 10:00 AM EST

Investment bank Piper Jaffray said Friday it now believes there is as an 85 percent likelihood that Apple at the upcoming Macworld Expo in January will finally take the wraps off its long-rumored ultra-portable MacBook.

“As Macworld approaches, reports of an ultraportable MacBook are following patterns of previously expected products that eventually materialized,” analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients. “We believe these reports are legitimate and continue to expect Apple to introduce a MacBook with a significantly smaller form factor.”

Earlier this month, AppleInsider cited well-respected sources who, following nearly two years of internal development on Apple’s part, are finally pinning the thin and lightweight 13-inch sub-notebook for an unveiling on January 15, 2008 as part of the company’s annual Macworld Expo announcements.

Munster, who dubbed the ultra-portable MacBook his “hot topic of the month,” had previously estimated that there was a 75 percent chance the notebook would make an appearance at the conference.

Meanwhile, the analyst also used his note to clients on Friday to offer a roundup of recent ongoings with Apple’s overseas iPhone launches, noting that Cupertino-based company’s three carrier partners in the Europe each expect to sell about 100,000 iPhones by the end of the year.

“Collectively, we were expecting the European iPhone launches to add 250,000 to December iPhone sales, but if Apple sells 100,000+ iPhones in the UK, Germany and France, there would likely be upside to our iPhone estimates,” he advised clients. “Thus far, it appears as though iPhone units in Europe are not exceeding the carriers’ expectations; however, the carriers’ estimates are meaningfully higher than our initial estimate of 250,000 in Europe.”

Only Orange said they expect to sell “100k phones” this holiday season. O2 said they hope to sell 250k, and T-Mobile I think said 200k.

I think Munster has failed to acknowledge the intense interest in the iPhone outside of the three Euro countries in which it has been launched, and the fact that these people can now buy an unlocked iPhone from France with relative ease. That’s Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg - all of which neighbour France -  and anyone else visiting Paris this quarter.

I also think he’s underestimating demand in Europe in the 3 launch countries generally.

Reading his statement on AppleInsider leads me to believe that he understands it to be misstated.  It appears that he’s leaving himself plenty of wiggle room in any case.

“Collectively, we were expecting the European iPhone launches to add 250,000 to December iPhone sales, but if Apple sells 100,000+ iPhones in the UK, Germany and France, there would likely be upside to our iPhone estimates,” he advised clients. “Thus far, it appears as though iPhone units in Europe are not exceeding the carriers’ expectations; however, the carriers’ estimates are meaningfully higher than our initial estimate of 250,000 in Europe.”

Briefing.com cover Gizmodo covering boygenius.com which says it “may” have gotten its hands on early specys for the rumoured Blackberry 9000 touchscreen phone.

Gee, fourth-hand rumours. How reliable.

11:44   AAPL Apple: Boy Genius Reports gets hand on specs of upcoming Blackberry 9000 (181.65 -2.64)  -Update-

Gizmodo reports Boy Genius Report may have gotten their hands on early specs of the upcoming touch-interface Blackberry 9000. And according to their sources, the 9000 has two hardware advantages over the iPhone. First, it features a 624MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor that just edges out the iPhone’s 620MHz ARM 1173 processor (on paper). Second, the 9000 will introduce speedy HSDPA to the line (a welcomed 3G first for the Blackberrys). Here is the link.

An utterly vague rumour conveniently timed to coincide with RIMM’s 7% decline.. you think somebody is trying to put a bottom under the sell-off here?

Note: Oooooo it features a 624Mhz chip instead of the iPhone’s 620Mhz chip - wow, a 4Mhz difference! Are we really comparing processor speeds of rival cell phones these days when working out which is “faster?” Christ…that’s such a stupid observation I can barely believe it.

Funny how they label this as “AAPL” news on Briefing.com… I thought it was a RIMM story? How naive of me….