China Mobile to offer Android handsets?
Posted by Dusan on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:25 am under China Mobile, Devices, HTC, Linux, Rumors
China Mobile may be offering Android-powered handsets, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Here are the facts that suggests we may see this happening in the near future:
- China Mobile is the only China-based mobile operator that is a member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance.
- In September 2007, China Mobile and Google, Marvell, China-based software developer Borqs International formed a technology alliance to promote a Linux-based open mobile system (OMS), integrating mobile applications specifically for the China market.
Originally, Chinese mobile operator planned to starting offer a Google phone by the end of 2008, with OMS applications to be developed by Borqs, the sources indicated. However, because the development of applications has lagged behind schedule, China Mobile is likely to postpone launching the handset until Q2 2009.
Alternatively, China Mobile may partner with HTC to offer an Android handset first by the end of 2008. And while we’re talking about HTC, the Taiwan-based smartphone maker plans to set up a subsidiary in China with clear idea to gain some market share in the “world’s fastest growing economy.” We’ll see where this goes…
[Via: DigiTimes]







It’s not a secret Chinese 3G aka TD-SCDMA isn’t delivering the numbers expected. According to China’s CCID Consulting, the number of TD-SCDMA subscribers is expected to reach 2.31 million by the end of this year, falling substantially short of the optimistic projection of 20-50 million subscribers.
China Mobile is already the world’s largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers, but that doesn’t mean they can’t impress the world again. According to China’s Ministry of Information Industry, China Mobile surpassed the 600 million subscriber mark as of end of June!
Initially, China Mobile has procured 60,000 TD-SCDMA handsets. The second round, finished recently, involved procurement of 200,000 handsets and the company may additionally order 40,000 TD-SCDMA plus CMMB (China mobile multimedia broadcasting) phones.

