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Google Postpones Android Launches in China

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 10:35 AM

android-tiananmen-tank-man

Those of you who follow tech news at large will have likely already heard about the aggressive cyberattack on Google originating from China, and the company’s reassessment of their position in the country. As is, it’s been hard enough for Google to suck up their pride and allow search results to be filtered according to the local politics, though some speculate Google’s current counterpressure is partially motivated to expand their comparatively small Chinese market share. That backlash is expanding into mobile, as the search giant has apparently postponed the launch of two new Android handsets until this situation clears up. The phones in question were to be announced on Wednesday, coming from Motorola and Samsung and sold through China Unicom. The motoroi and Shadow are potential candidates, but the only upcoming Samsung Android device we’ve heard about in the area is the Saturn. The potential for Android to never find its way into China after this episode is even scarier than the local search engine itself shutting down, since the use of Android expands well beyond Google, while most Chinese web surfers are already using another search engine.

[via AFP]

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About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • abc123

    This is hilarious. Google trying to take on China? Do they even know that China doesn’t even play by our rules? Do you think China even gives a rats ass? After all, the US economy is reliant on them, the electronics industry is reliant on them… I bet the Nexus One is made in China too.

    In the long run, Google will lose. The great thing about China is that they no longer take sh!t from anybody, especially from western influence… you can thank history for that.