Steve Jobs doesn't particularly strike me as someone who takes rejection well, especially when it's his iPhone-baby that's being turned down, so I can't imagine things are particularly happy on this, the eve of the Macworld Keynote, with the news that China Mobile has rejected the Apple cellphone and pulled out of talks with the company.  While no official statement was made explaining their reasons, many have assumed that the high percentages of revenue Apple demanded from handset sales and game, music and video downloads were enough to sour any potential deal.  China Mobile's CEO, Wang Jianzhou, has been vocally dismissive of revenue sharing in the past, and the network is obviously in a strong position being the largest in the country.

"It's bad news for Apple.  China Mobile would have helped immediately sell lots of iPhones because they have such a large user base; Apple entering China without China Mobile won't be as substantial" Johnny Yeh, analyst, Quam Ltd.

Apparently Apple was demanding between 20 and 30-percent of data service fees, according to Sina.com, in what would seemingly be a dangerous risk considering China has more mobile subscribers than the US, UK and Japan combined.  Some analysts had predicted that, even if Apple's share of the revenue was tiny compared to the deals it has secured in the US and Europe, it would still stand to make revenue in the region of $1.8bn a year.

It is uncertain whether rival networks are in talks with Apple regarding the iPhone's availability in China, or if the planned expansion is now on hold.

[via CrunchGear]