China Mobile H1 net profit up 6.3%

China Mobile (CHL.NYSE, 0941.HK) reported that net profits grew 6.3% year-on-year in the first half to US$9.6 billion, its fastest growth since 2008, Reuters reported. The world’s No. 1 mobile operator by subscribers said it has been in talks with Apple’s (APPL.NASDAQ) chief executive Steve Jobs about launching iPhones to accelerate its uptake of high-end 3G services. Currently, only 80 million of China’s mobile phone users – a total of 907 million – use 3G. China’s three big telecom operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, are all competing to increase their market share of 3G and smartphone users with multi-year contracts and subsidized phones made by Apple, Samsung Electronics (005930.SEO) and HTC (2498.TW). “China Mobile, like its competitors, is facing a dilemma of trying to lure more users with subsidies and trying to improve their bottomline because of these subsidies. It’s a hard balancing act,” said Jane Wang, a Beijing-based analyst at research firm Ovum. As of June, China Mobile had 616.8 million subscribers, which included 35 million 3G users.