Nokia on Tuesday showed off its first handset to support China's native 3G standard, TD-SCDMA. The Nokia 6788 was developed in conjunction with China Mobile, the country's biggest wireless provider, and sports a 2.8-inch display with 320x240 resolution and is considered smartphone-grade through its use of Symbian S60. There is also a 5-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash.
An apparent scoop suggests Dell has decided to bring its Mini 3i to the US after all, but not in its original form. A contact claims it's due in the "next few months" but that it will be an upgraded version of what was shown recently in China. Build quality should improve, but it would also upgrade from a 3-megapixel camera to a 5-megapixel model.
AU Optronics (AUO) said on Friday that it hopes to slash the price of e-book readers in half within two years. The Taiwan area company explained to FT that it hopes to use its experience in making LCDs, as well as the sheer scale of its production, to make the e-paper displays affordable enough that they can lead to much less expensive hardware. A $150 reader could be available in 2010, while a $100 reader will ideally ship in 2011.
The launch of the iPhone in China could be instrumental to the growth of smartphones in the entire world, according to an estimate by iSuppli. The threat of an officially sanctioned iPhone on China Unicom is believed to be a "starting gun" for China and has already spurred the government-backed carrier China Mobile to introduce its rival Ophone platform, which combines touchscreen phones with a custom Android operating system that shows strong influences from the iPhone. The competition is expected to spike Chinese smartphone sales by 42.5 percent in 2010 to 30.2 million.
China Mobile is indeed still in talks with Apple regarding the iPhone, a spokeswoman for the carrier says. The disclosure follows an Apple admission on Monday, stating that a three-year deal with China Unicom is not exclusive, in theory allowing for increased competition. The China Mobile representative has refused to describe the state of negotiations, other than to say that no conclusion has been reached.
LG will release its GW880 smartphone together with wireless provider China Mobile, according to these leaked images. The device will be preloaded with OPhone OS, a version of Google's open-source Android that has been approved by the Chinese government. The GW880 has support for China’s TD-SCDMA/EDGE 3G connection and includes a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 800x480 resolution, 512MB of built-in memory and 256MB of RAM. There is also built-in GPS, Bluetooth and a 5-megapixel camera.
China Unicom on Friday confirmed in its interim results that it had reached an agreement with Apple to carry the iPhone in China. The news supports word of finished talks and will launch the smartphone sometime in the fall. Most terms aren't available, but China Unicom has said the deal extends for three years and that two models will be involved, at least one of which is likely the 16GB iPhone 3GS.
A report from earlier this week had Dell's smartphone launching in China this week. A new, Tuesday report backs up those rumors, and goes on to unveil the name of the device. To be called mini3i, the device will launch at China Mobile. Sold under the Ophone brand, the carrier plans to add rebadged devices from other manufacturers under the new name.
An iPhone running on China Unicom's network has been seen in a set of photos (since edited) that appears to confirm reports of the carrier nearing a deal to carry the device in the Asian country. The handset shown by Sina appears to be a stock 16GB iPhone 3GS in most respects but, beyond showing "China Unicom" as the carrier identifier, shows Chinese characters on the back and makes a reference to the WCDMA 3G standard. While just a different way of referring to the UMTS format found in most parts of the world, the naming isn't found on any other iPhone released to date.
An ultra mobile PC (UMPC) has been spotted bearing China Mobile's G3 logo and a 3G connection using the country's native TD-SCDMA standard. While such a device would otherwise go unnoticed, this particular one comes with Android and features and an interface especially suited to the open-source operating system. The 7-inch touchscreen UMPC reportedly supports voice and video calling, web browsing, e-mailing and text and multimedia messaging, and even sports dedicated talk and end buttons, like a traditional handset.
In spite of a recent Merrill Lynch report, no deal has been finalized for a Chinese iPhone, claims Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. While China Unicom is still considered the frontrunner for a distribution agreement with Apple, the only alternative carrier in the region -- China Mobile -- is said by industry sources to be persisting in negotiations. The company has the distinct advantage of a larger subscriber base, at 488 million.
Taiwan's handset manufacturer HTC is due to release an Android-powered smartphone in China in June, its chief executive Peter Chou told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The phone will be a version of the Magic, the second Android-powered handset from HTC that went on sale in Europe recently, although with custom software from China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless provider, at about 500 million subscribers. With the Magic, HTC hopes to double its China sales to 1.6 million.
Apple's upcoming revision to the iPhone could be the first to split the line into multiple versions based on the network, a supposed leak said on Tuesday. Rather than stick to a one-size-fits-all approach, the company is claimed by iLounge to be offering iPhones with different network speeds depending on the region. Those in the best-equipped countries will get iPhones with 7.2Mbps 3G; other countries would still have 3.6Mbps 3G, while a third phone would be specific to China.
The number of phones shipped using Google's Android platform is set to grow much faster than the iPhone this year, estimates from Strategy Analytics maintain today. Devices like the T-Mobile G1 have just a small fraction of shipments today but are expected to grow 900 percent in 2009 as multiple extra smartphones launch and more carriers come onboard. Apple's device will reportedly grow second-quickest but at a much smaller 79 percent growth rate to 23.8 million iPhones per year, potentially leading to a shift in favor of Android in the near future.
Apple and its US carrier AT&T are some of the most important technology companies in terms of brand worth, the latest Brandz Top 100 ranking (PDF) from MillwardBrown indicates. Gauging them not just on their actual income but also their social impact, the firm estimates that Apple has the sixth-largest brand value in the world and has seen the rough value of its brand climb 14 percent to about $63.1 billion. AT&T ranked 28th but was also one of the fastest-rising companies, jumping 67 percent to just over $20 billion.
China Mobile on Tuesday confirmed rumors and said it will launch a cellphone app store of its own before the end of 2009. The simply-titled Mobile Market will let third parties publish apps regardless of operating system through a single store on the carrier. Most details aren't known, though the store is being timed to launch with the government-backed TD-SCDMA standard for 3G, which should produce speeds fast enough to encourage downloading more apps.
China Mobile is due to release the Lenovo-made Ophone this May, beating Apple's iPhone to the market, which itself is rumored to go on sale in China in June through carrier Unicom, says a Monday DigiTimes report. The two touchscreen smartphones share similarities, including a similar look to the touch-enabled user interface on a large touchscreen, though the Ophone is already known to be based on China Mobile's customized version of Android known as the Open Mobile System (OMS).
Dell and China Mobile (CMCC) announced on Wednesday they have introduced Inspiron Mini 10 netbook in the Chinese market which benefits from the provider's 3G data network access via its built-in modem, allowing Internet and e-mail access from nearly anywhere in the country with a signal.
Dell is pinning its hopes for a first smartphone on a deal with the world's largest carrier, Wedge MKI analyst Zhang Jun said today in an interview with NetworkWorld. The American company is reportedly in talks with China Mobile to offer "one or two" candidate models and may strike a deal by August, paving the way for a release before the end of the year. While only implied, it's thought the Dell phone would use China Mobile's Open Mobile System (OMS), a variant of Android that supports the carrier's apps as well as China's new TD-SCDMA network for 3G.
A trio of Samsung smartphones that should be released to market sometime in 2009 have been leaked on the Internet on Thursday, revealing the near-identical S8000 and M8000 as well as the Windows Mobile-based B7300. The twins do not have a physical keyboard save for three buttons at their base and instead rely on touchscreen displays believed to offer 240x400 resolution. Apart from a 5-megapixel autofocus camera that is equipped with a dual-LED flash, no other specs are known about the S8000.
Cellphone carrier China Mobile remains in talks with Apple, the company's CEO claims. "We have been discussing with Apple, but until now no agreement has been reached," Wang Jianzhou explained to reporters following an annual results announcement. The executive went on to insist that the company is entirely open to outsiders, so long as there is profit to be made, according to Agence France Presse.
The chairman of China Unicom, Chang Xiaobing, has admitted to talks with Apple in regards to selling the iPhone in China, Reuters reports. Although a manager is said to have confirmed the information early last month, Xiaobing himself has not spoken about negotiations until today. "We are in talks with many handset suppliers, including Apple," the executive told gathered reporters at an event.
Distribution of apps has led to another breakdown in talks between Apple and China Mobile, according to Interfax China. A source for the news agency claims that China Mobile president Wang Jianzhou recently visited the company's Research Institute, and explained in detail how talks with Apple have stalled not only recently but three times over the course of 18 months. China Mobile wants considerably more control than Apple is willing to give, the source suggests.
Lenovo will enter the touchscreen smartphone arena by using Google's Android and with a very iPhone-like appearance, a leak from modmyGphone shows. The unnamed device has a full touchscreen flush with the main body, like its Apple rival, and will have just a minimum of extra buttons for calling, answering and stepping through menus. No keyboard is immediately visible and suggests instead that the phone may use a planned virtual keyboard for Android rather than the hardware keys required on HTC's G1.
Apple may be closer to bringing the iPhone to China, a new job offer posting suggests. The company is looking for an iPhone Quality Assurance Engineer, to be located in Beijing. China represents an enormous market for mobile phones, but negotiations for the iPhone may have lasted longer than expected. Shortly before the iPhone 3G launch, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told CNBC that Chinese and Russian announcements would "happen later this year." The Russian launch occurred early in October, but the company has been quiet about any progress in China.
National carrier China Mobile on Friday is one of the next in line to get an Android phone after T-Mobile, industry contacts allegedly report. The state-run company is part of the Open Handset Alliance and has already committed to the concept of an Android phone but is now reportedly confirming a past slip by narrowing down its Android launch to a specific spring 2009 release window. The unnamed handset would be made by G1 creator HTC but is said to have been delayed by the creation of China-specific apps for Android.
China's version of the iPhone could be significantly stripped down from the model available everywhere else, a report in the South China Morning Post. Citing Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Calvin Huang, the newspaper claims that the large scale Taiwan-area manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry has been prepared to make an iPhone without either a 3G connection or Wi-Fi and is primarily waiting on approval from China Mobile, which has long been speculated as the target carrier for a Chinese launch.
Apple and China Mobile are in fact in the "final stages" of negotiations for brining the iPhone to China, writes the state-owned 21st Century Business Herald. The account follows a report from China Communications, which claimed similar progress in talks, and that China Mobile was ready to provide a hefty subsidy, similar to that provided in other countries. The assistance is particularly important in China, where the majority cannot afford an unsubsidized smartphone.
China's largest cellphone carrier -- China Mobile -- may be ready to subsidize the iPhone in its home country, says JLM Pacific Epoch. The research firm cites China Communications, which in turns quotes a source close to China Mobile. The source claims that the carrier is close to finishing negotiations with Apple for the iPhone 3G, and as part of the deal, China Mobile would provide a significant subsidy for each unit.
Past divisions between Apple and cellular carrier China Mobile are narrowing, Reuters reports. For months, informal talks to bring the iPhone to China have been stalled, as the two companies could not agree on fundamental points of interest. These have been resolved, says China Mobile spokeswoman Rainie Lei. The largest obstacle is said to have been revenue sharing, something Chinese companies do not practice as a rule.
Orange is giving its French iPhone customers incentives to trade up to the new model, according to news from multiple readers of PCInpact. The carrier is described as calling its customers giving them an offer that would encourage them to trade up to the iPhone. One offer would see users trade in their 2G models for the next-generation version as well as paying 50 Euros; a second would let them keep the older model but buy the new one with a "generous" subsidy from the carrier, according to reports.
Google remains the number one company in the world in terms of estimated brand value, says the research group Millward Brown Optimor. Google has held its spot for a third consecutive year, with a recent valuation of $86.1 billion, an increase of 30 percent over earlier results. General Electric holds second place in the current survey at $71.4 billion, while Microsoft is valued at $70.9 billion. The results are based on interviews with over a million people worldwide.
Apple and China's largest cellular company, China Mobile, have yet to begin formal negotiations over the iPhone in spite of mutual interests, say reports. The latter company's chairman, Wang Jianzhou, revealed the information at this weekend's Boao Forum conference, explaining that there is no current timeframe for a Chinese iPhone. He further states that while the companies may have had informal conversations in the past, disputes over business models have kept the two corporations from making progress.
China Mobile on Friday said it had started testing the country's own 3G network, offering its first native high-speed cellular access. A limited but public trial will see about 20,000 cellphones and 5,000 PC adapter cards in use that will prove the feasibility of TD-SCDMA, a new standard developed inside China meant to serve as an alternative to HSPA and other Western-made (and thus more costly to license) formats. The trial will start in Beijing and several other major Chinese cities, but has no fixed end date.
Interest in the iPhone continues to exist at China Mobile, despite no progress with Apple, according to the former company's CEO. The two parties broke off negotiations in January, at least temporarily denying Apple access to the Chinese market; although no official explanations were given, it is believed that China Mobile is refusing to submit to revenue sharing, a practice common with other iPhone carriers but unprecedented in China. Businesses in the country are in fact hostile to the concept, some reports have suggested.
As many as 400,000 or more iPhones are already operating in China, according to a report issued by In-Stat. The research firm cites figures from China Mobile, the country's largest cellular carrier, which claims that the 400,000 figure was reached by the end of 2007, representing a full tenth of all iPhone shipments confirmed by Apple. In-Stat notes that this is four times what it had expected to find.
In what seems to be an enormous shift in the race for a 4G wireless standard, China Mobile on Wednesday is expected to show its support for the LTE, or Long Term Evolution, 4G wireless technology. Should this prove to be true, LTE will have accrued support from China Mobile, Vodafone, Verizon, and, peripherally, AT&T, according to Yahoo News. Arun Sarin, CEO for Vodafone, expects that WiMax – one of LTE's competing standards – will be rolled in to the LTE standard, as the UK-based company deploys its 4G networks in 2010.
Apple and China Mobile have broken off all talks over the latter carrying the iPhone, Reuters reports. The iPhone is thus unlikely to ship to China in the foreseeable future, and unless the companies reconcile their differences, Apple will also be denied access to the 350 million subscribers China Mobile can provide. No reason for the split has been given; it has been suspected, though, that as hinted in earlier reports, China Mobile stood up to Apple demands for revenue sharing. Apple has traditionally insisted on collecting a portion of the income from each iPhone, as well as subscription fees.
