The battle for small companies which develop online games is unbelievable. Such companies seem to be selling more than the iPad nowadays, must likely because of the huge growth social networking sites have recorded. Online gaming is also more fun than ever and nearly every well-designed Internet service and site of this type has been attracting huge numbers of users. Apple is well aware of how important web services and applications are. They are in fact selling such products through their Apple App Store. The company’s iPhone could be considered a great device to have and it’s pretty fun for users to own. But there comes a point in each user’s life when the iPhone becomes boring without the use of extra applications and services.
Interested in evolving and ‘keeping it fresh’ Apple is now in talks regarding the purchase of Chinese software maker Handseeing. An executive from the Chinese company has announced this future deal on Friday. This acquisition would be Apple’s first in China.
“We should have a decision in about one or two months,” Tian Bo, vice-president for operations told Reuters by phone. “They’re still talking about it and it’s not quite settled yet right now.”
Tian Bo declined to give any additional details while Apple spokespeople had no immediate comment. Handseeing is not a widely-known company. It’s headquartered in southwest China in the Sichuan province. The company makes a living out of designing online games that are based on popular Chinese folklore. The deal indicates that Apple might be trying to make a better name on the China market where it hasn’t had a very significant presence up to this date. A month ago Apple had barely managed to negotiate with the Chinese government and get a network access license in the country. The iPhone 3GS will finally start selling to Chinese users at the beginning of this week.
In China Apple currently operates two retail stores, one located in Beijing, the other in Shanghai. The company has plans to have at least 25 such outlets by the end of next year. It’s currently selling the famous iPhone through mobile operator China Unicom. While rival Google keeps buying small companies and incorporating their skills and talents, Apple has so far made very few major acquisitions. There is good reason to this as most of Apple’s products have been developed internally.
According to the reports of Chinese SinoCast Daily Business Beat, Apple is close to making the purchase of Handseeing for as much as 150 billion USD but a series of other potential buyers have added to the uncertainty of the deal. China offers a huge mobile Internet sector which has until now been mostly ignored, so it’s in a way natural for Apple to finally want to take advantage of the opportunity. Now the first thing that strikes as odd is the $150 bullion price tag on the small mobile game developer. Assuming the figure would actually be $150 million, it would be a lot more believable.
At the beginning of July, Foxconn, Apple’s manufacturing partner was believed to be interested in purchasing Handseeing. The purchase was said to be a part of Foxconn’s development strategy to complete its 6C deployment. At the time, Tian Bo, vicepresident of Handseeing confirmed the talks the company had with Foxconn also claiming that he didn’t know any other details regarding the situation.
