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China Mobile, the No. 1 cell company in China, claims there are 400,000 unlocked iPhones running on its network. That's more than 10 percent of the 3.7 million Steve Jobs announced Apple had shipped through mid-January. A very impressive stat to be sure, but why did China Mobile release it now? Apple and China Mobile have been in negotiations for a while about bringing the iPhone to China. The talks had reached an impasse over how much of a kickback Apple would receive on subscriber fees.

By releasing this surprising iPhone stat, China Mobile could be trying to negotiate in public. The message: China Mobile is already getting the benefits of data-heavy iPhone usage on its network; why should it kowtow to Apple? In China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou, Jobs has finally found a worthy adversary. Former AT&T Wireless CEO Stan Sigman just rolled over and played dead when Jobs came calling.

Putting pressure on Wang and Jobs to come to terms: The forthcoming opening of Apple's Beijing flagship store this summer, and the Beijing Olympics in August. If no deal is made, expect to see more iPhones hacked and available in China and any other country that doesn't currently have the iPhone available for sale from Apple. Without deals in place, those phones won't pad Apple's bottom line. The good news for Jobs: Demand for the iPhone is out of control. The bad news for Jobs: Demand for the iPhone is out of control. (Photo by Wesley Fryer)