Did A Picture Of Tim Cook Just Make Apple A Screaming Buy?

Today's down down in Apple may be just the screaming buying opportunity you need. Apple AAPL COO and acting CEO Tim Cook was spotted at China Mobile CHL headquarters recently. Cook was spotted with a few executives and he looked happy at China Mobile headquarters. So why else would Cook be at the world's largest mobile phone carrier other than to discuss bringing the world's most iconic phone, the iPhone? Nothing. Cook is there to sell the iPhone, and that's that. It will probably be a different version of the iPhone, as China Mobile runs Long Term Evolution (LTE), so it may be bringing an LTE iPhone to China, but rest assured, a LEGAL iPhone is on its way. It's just a matter of timing at this point. According to AppleInsider, there are already currently 4 million iPhones on the China Mobile network, despite the fact that the phone is not officially on the network. China Mobile has over 600 million users, and if even 5% of them initially switch to the iPhone, that's another 30 million iPhones that Steve Jobs gets to sell. Analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities says that the high end phone market for smartphones in China is 100-125 million subscribers, which would translate to potentially $70 billion in revenues. "The numbers speak for themselves," he said in a note to investors on Thursday. "For example, Apple generated approximately $5 billion in revenue from Greater China during (the first half of fiscal 2011) or 10% of sales compared to $3 billion for all of (fiscal year 2010)." "Traveling to China is a major undertaking and we doubt Tim Cook would be visiting China Mobile unless the two companies were getting close to a partnership," White said. "Essentially, we believe the data points in recent months foreshadow an accelerated relationship between the two companies and we are inclined to believe that an announcement is imminent over the next several months." While this may be a help to China Mobile as it brings in more data plans, and heavier usage from its customers, the real benefit here is to Apple, as usual. This deal has been talked about for YEARS, and it looks as if we may finally hear something relatively soon. Apple, you've done it again. Only this time, it's Tim Cook, not Steve Jobs getting the praise.