We already know that China Mobile’s Wang Jianzhou is looking to play hardball with Apple over revenue sharing of the iPhone (Wang is of the opinion that since China Mobile is supplying all the users, Apple shouldn’t get a slice of his monthly income) but even without their regular tithe is it still worth Steve Jobs pushing the handset to the Chinese market?  Henry Blodget certainly thinks so; he’s run through some figures and, if you’re an Apple shareholder, the prospects look damned good:

“China’s mobile market is so huge that even if Apple gets only a tiny slice of it, even if China’s wireless operators stiff Apple on the subscription-revenue share, and even if Apple has to cut the iPhone’s price, we’re still talking big dollars” Henry Blodget

Even taking revenue sharing off of the table, the figures are whopping.  Blodget estimates the country will have 600 million mobile subscribers in 2008, and with even a mere 2-percent share of that – with each iPhone costing $300 – you’d be looking at $1.8bn incremental annual revenue.

Potential issues are mainly around the physical size of the market: China lacks the retail structures and brand awareness that, say, the US takes for granted.  Check out the full post for the total price breakdown.

[thanks Dan for the tip]