BEIJING, Aug 16 — China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest phone company by users, has 15 handsets ready to be used on its fourth-generation mobile network as it continues talks with Apple Inc. for iPhone cooperation.

More than 100 devices are in development for the carrier’s TD-LTE network, chief executive officer Li Yue said at a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday. Li, whose company does not offer the iPhone, did not identify the vendors of the 4G handsets.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing last month, his second visit this year, as the company dropped to seventh in the nation’s smartphone market in the June quarter. While each of the top five vendors has a distribution agreement with China Mobile, Apple is limited to the nation’s second- and third-largest carriers.

“The discussions with Apple are still ongoing,” Xi said at the press conference. “Most of the discussion revolves around commercial details and technology issues.”

China Mobile’s 740 million wireless users account for 63 per cent of the market. Cupertino-based Apple in California has agreements in place with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., the nation’s second-largest carrier, as well as third-ranked China Telecom Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co., based in Suwon, South Korea, led China’s smartphone market with its 18 per cent share in the second quarter, followed by Lenovo Group Ltd. with 12 per cent, researcher Canalys said this month.

The rest of the top five were local vendors that have distribution agreements with China Mobile: China Wireless Technologies Ltd.’s Coolpad; ZTE Corp; and Huawei Technologies Co.

Sliding share

Apple’s market share halved to 5 per cent in the second quarter, its lowest since the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Canalys.

China Mobile runs a third-generation network standard called TD-SCDMA, which Apple so far has not agreed to support. The carrier is preparing for commercialisation of its fourth-generation network using the international TD-LTE standard.

The carrier yesterday said it spent 14.2 billion yuan (RM7.5 billion) on subsidies in the first half of this year to attract users to its 3G network.

China Mobile’s net income in the second quarter rose 2.5 per cent to 35.2 billion yuan as costs to add new subscribers restrained growth, according to figures derived from first-half results released yesterday.

Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman, did not return phone calls for comment on Xi’s remarks. — Bloomberg