OPhone! iPhone! The end is in sight?

While China Unicom may have finally won the iPhone battle, but that the war for control of China's mobile phone market is still far from over.

According to Engadget, China Mobile's next move is to release the very similar Lenovo-made Android-based OPhone a month before China Unicom comes out with the iPhone.

If that report is accurate, that would put the OPhone release date somewhere in May 2009 and the iPhone release in June.

Engadget questions the effectiveness of China Mobile's preemptive strike, saying "are people there (China) so eager for the iPhone they'd jump on the imitation rather than wait another month for the real thing?" We're not sure either, considering that - besides a couple of videos - we have no idea how well the Lenovo oPhone works. With the number of unlocked and knock off iPhones already here, if people are really have been waiting this long for Apple's product to come, its substitute had better be pretty amazing.

Previously on Shanghaiist
Bizarre 3G love triangle: China Mobile, China Unicom and iPhone
China Tech Roundup: GFW gearing up for holiday season mischief, electric cars and the OPhone
China's Android launch slated for Q1 2009
China iPhone saga: That's a funny way of not commenting..