Almost a year later and Apple is still in talks with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone provider, as to how to bring the iPhone handset to China.

“Steve Jobs and I hope the iPhone will enter China as soon as possible,” said Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile’s CEO, on the sidelines of the ITU Telecom Asia 2008 exhibition in Bangkok Tuesday. “We are discussing this issue but we do not have an agreement.”

According to Macworld, it's not clear as to what exactly is holding the two parties back from an agreement and Wang declined further comment, citing a non-disclosure agreement with Apple, though a more prevalent suggestion has been that China Mobile didn't like the terms of the revenue sharing model that accompanied the iPhone.

China Mobile currently boasted over 420 million subscribers at the end of July and is a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of technology and service companies developing products based on Google's upcoming Android mobile phone.

Apple still has other choices within the country and may opt to work with a smaller Chinese mobile service operator willing to provide better terms in return for the news coverage and subscribers that come along with iPhone sales.

For now, Chinese users looking an iPhone have to smuggle them into the country and break the security meant to tie them to a specific service provider. Analysts estimate that there are already more than 800,000 unlocked iPhones in use throughout China.

If you've heard anything on your end or have something to offer on this, let us know in the comments or forums.