Rumours have already started circulating that China Mobile will be the carrier to introduce the HTC G1 Android phone to China. Launched last Tuesday by T-Mobile in the States, this phone is the first device to run on the Google develop platform Android.
Digitimes.com reports that as the only Chinese carrier that is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, China Mobile had planned to launch a Linux Open Mobile System device before the end of the year but because that plan has fallen behind, sources (which are unnamed and unverified in the report) have suggested that China Mobile may decide to first launch the G1 that will be compatible with their TD-SCDMA 3G standard.
In comparison to the iPhone, the G1 is certainly not as sleek or as sexy as the iPhone and does not include multi-touch technology but does provide direct music downloads from Amazon to compete with iTunes as well as Google Street View which would be completely useless in China.
It also seems that the good folk at HTC were listening when the iPhone product development team was not because the G1 also includes a slide out QWERTY keypad, a 3 megapixel camera and a 360 degree blackberryesque track ball for navigation, features that appeared on many iPhone 3G wishlists before it's release earlier this year.
China Mobile, the largest mobile carrier seems to be struggling with a comprehensive 3G strategy. Other rumours of a stripped down iPhone launch seem to indicate that they are clutching at straws on how to approach competition from mobile contender China Unicom after having drawn the short straw with a locally developed 3G standard that is currently unsupported by most devices across the world.
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Another brick to schlep around, with features and functions that all of us could also live without before, with services that will drive our phone-bills up, not down.
The only functions in excess of what any run-of-the-mill standard 200 gram flat mobile phone offers today there is only Wifi and somewhat MS Office compatibility in iPhone and similar products.
My iPhone with latest firmware 2.1 is lying in the corner catching dust. My work-horse is the SonyEricsson W890i with superb sound and picture quality, flat, light, unmatched battery-life, Quadband and 3G, technologywise years ahead of what is coming out of Palo Alto, California.
i can not see this phone as it currently stands ever working out in the shanghai market. It's far to ugly for people to except. luckily I believe Motorola announced today that they're going to have android phones.
and out of all places, shanghai is probably the last holdouts where motorola phones is still considered 'hip'. no?
I guess China Mobile will be using the 'threat' of the G1 to pressure Apple into complying with providing them with a crippled iPhone 3G... or so they think!
In the meantime, Apple has 'conveniently' started selling the iPhone 3G, completely unlocked, right across the border in Hong Kong, at attractive prices (attractive enough to make it worthwhile buying and grey marketing to China), ready to be used en masse to China Unicom.
We'll see who blinks first, but I have a feeling that it won't be Apple.