China Mobile plans to launch Android-based Ophone handset in May

[monsitj]

China Mobile plans to launch an iPhone-like smartphone, the Ophone, in the China market in May, in order to compete with the iPhone which is reportedly slated for launch by China Unicom in June, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

China Mobile will outsource production of the Ophone to Lenovo and LG Electronics (LGE) initially, using chipset solutions most likely from Taiwan-based MediaTek, the paper said, adding that the Ophone will run on China Mobile's in-house developed Android-based open mobile system (OMS).

As you were aware, that China Mobile was planning to launch the KIRFy OPhone from Lenovo. Now, with word on the street that China Unicom has snagged the iPhone in that provider’s home turf, a report from DigiTimes is suggesting that China Mobile might be trying to undermine the competition’s supposed June iPhone launch by dropping the OPhone a month earlier. That sounds sensible enough, but are people there so eager for iPhone they’d jump on the imitation rather than wait another month for the real thing? We’ll find out soon enough.

[Farrah]

The OPhone will run on an operating system developed by China Mobile and will work on the carrier's homegrown TD-SCDMA third-generation wireless technology platform. Although it looks similar to the iPhone, oPhone equipped with their own operating system (OMS, Open Mobile System) is based on Google's Android platform. Lenovo hopes to start selling the OPhone next month in the world's largest mobile market of more than 700 million subscribers. The launch of Ophone, if it is successful, should help China Mobile to fend off challenges from iPhone, Allan Ng, an analyst at BOC International said.