China Mobile Communications Corp. 's Chairman Wang Jianzhou has said that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) will support the carrier's next-generation mobile broadband technology, Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE TDD), according to a Reuters report.

Wang also said that China Mobile has been in discussions with Apple for two years about developing an iPhone that supports the Chinese homegrown 3G technology TD-SCDMA.

The comments were made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and were first reported in the Chinese news outlet Sina Technology, notes the Reuters story.

"We hope that when they develop the next-generation models, since Apple can create CDMA, they can also consider developing TD-SCDMA," Wang was quoted as saying. "These two years we have been discussing the issue. Right now the situation is moving forward. Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE."

The iPhone is available in China from China Unicom Ltd. (NYSE: CHU). (See iPhone Heads to China, ChinaWatch: iPhone Imminent? and China 3G Update: App Stores & iPhones.)

Without Apple's iPhone, China Mobile developed what it called the OPhone, which is an Android-based mobile software platform that is optimized for Internet services. (See China's Battle of the Vowels.)

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile