I considered buying an I-phone shortly after its launch, but then learned that if/when you buy one you are stuck with AT&T as the mobile service provider, in which case if you are a person that travels outside the US for pleasure or business you will in turn get stuck paying very high extra fees to use said I-phone abroad. I.e., why switch from Blackberry and T-Mobile? So that fact, coupled with the fact that AT&T’s service can be nearly as bad as Charter Cable, means that I have yet to buy an I-phone and will hold off until an affordable solution appears.

This situation is somewhat frustrating because I do not understand why Apple did not cut a deal with China Mobile, who holds the cell phone service monopoly in China, as part of it’s product launch.

Now I know more about why said deal has not been done. Click HERE and listen to this China Business Network podcast with Sean Rein of the China Market Research Group, which sheds light on why Apple has not/could not yet cut a deal with China mobile.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, Steve Jobs has never been to China.   Huh? If that is, in fact, the case, I am scratching my head on that one.

Now onto things that matter … golf.

Golf in China is getting big as discretionary income there continues to rise. Really big. Big enough so that some business undergraduate programs are starting to require their students to take a golf class so they can be more effective in the “business schmooze game” that is such a big part of hitting the links in the West.  See this recent CBN podcast on the topic, Golf in China.

The last time I was in China, a buddy took me golfing at a course located along the Great Wall. On almost every hole, we could look over and see the Great Wall and if we looked up at the even higher elevations, we could see the light snow that had fallen the night before on the mountain-tops along that part of the Great Wall. It was quite a site and perhaps the most amazing round of golf I have ever played and at a price I could afford. Yes, it was also client development work, but somebody’s gotta do it.

My score was in no way inspired by the beauty that surrounded us, and remained as pathetic as ever.   Notwithstanding Chevy Chase’s exhortation in Caddyshack, I will never be the ball.