Nabbing a contract with a carrier pushing into nine-figure subscriber count territory would go a long way toward helping any manufacturer's woes, so it's reasonable to believe that Palm would be shopping its latest wares around the streets of Hong Kong and Beijng where China's big three carriers are headquartered. Intriguingly, the
Financial Times has just casually mentioned in a somewhat-unrelated piece that "
China Telecom is planning to offer the Palm to its subscribers," a perfect fit considering that rival Unicom is
poised to launch the iPhone and Telecom runs CDMA with nascent EV-DO coverage in the works. The Pre already knows a thing or two about CDMA networks from its Sprint and Bell launches, of course, so they've already got that base covered -- beyond that brief FT mention, though, we've got nothing, so it's hard to say when this might be hitting retail.
posted Aug 28th 2009 2:46AM
Ugh, quit showing those pictures! She freaks me out!
That's almost exactly, word for word, what i was going to say. I don't mean to be mean, she's not ugly, it's just that they seem to have gone out of their way to make her look creepy.
She almost has an albino thing going. Girl needs a makeover. Some mascara and lipstick would do wonders.
-1 from me, sorry but I don't mind her, and I think the chinese angle is cleverly done.
She has retractable fangs, I tell you.
She's what attracted the Chinese government in the first place. they figure the Pre can make everyone that uses it into a emotionless stoned freak.
Every time I see her one image pops into my head... The Borg Queen
I thought its their new add..
I bet if she let her hair down, guys would be jizzing in their pants for her. I mean honestly, how many male Engadget readers would REALLY turn her down?
Also, I love the great photoshop skills. Not even saying that sarcastically. It was a smart move to not make it perfect, since the Chinese architecture actually fits the scene rather well. Had the cut n' paste fuzz not been there, I would have never noticed a change.
> I bet if she let her hair down, guys would be jizzing in their pants for her...
http://www.northernstars.ca/actorsghi/Media/hope_tamara_250_ctv.jpg
why not just make one like they do with every other thing, call it a Palm Post.
Probably there is(are)....
All this talk and no phone. If a GSM pre doesn't come out in three seconds, I'm calling shenanigans.
Three...
Two...
One...
Shenanigans!
You called?
Shenanigans is my middle name!
That's a horrible photoshop.
Thanks!
... I don't think it's that bad. I think it conveys the meaning of the post pretty well.
You're welcome :)
You are not welcome.
you are not welcome here.
*fixed*
I think a full 56.24% of why I read Engadget are the photoshopped images.
This is great news for Palm. I wonder when the Palm Pre will be introduced in China. It is an awesome phone.
Here is a write-up about its introduction in Canada... http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1932511
It seems as if things are about to start happening!
Whats Macaulay Culkin doing in China?
vacationing from his home in japan I imagine.
9-figure subscriber count!?
I thought I read they had 100,000-ish 3g subscribers.
You aaw the China Telecom/HTC news today, right?
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/company-focus/2009/07/24/217570/3G-as.htm
BTW, there seems to be major confusion in the Media about what type of subscribers China Telecom has - many are reporting their total subscriber count as "3g subscribers", some are reporting their mobile subscriber count as "3g subscribers".
It's confusing because they also have an old PHS network (PHS, like Willcom in Japan).
I just skimmed article, but not sure what Hong Kong has to do with all this - we have separate telecom companies from the mainland. Both HK and Macau are mostly HSDPA, and our major providers are CSL Group, PCCW, 3 (same as Europe and Australia), Smartone-Vodafone and Peoples. Our overlap with the mainland is that Peoples was acquired by China Mobile in 2005, but generally our networks are separate from the mainland (hence the popularity of dual SIM phones). When we get the Pre, it'll be GSM version that does the 2100 band, as we don't have EVDO.
If you actually read the article you'll see they are talking about headquarters of China's big three, in which China Mobile's HQ just happens to be in Hong Kong.
Yes, I just checked. China Mobile isn't a big player in Hong Kong's mobile landscape, so it's really wierd that they are "HQed" in Hong Kong. So I checked. From Wikipedia:
"government control is maintained through China Mobile Communications Corporation, a presumably government-owned holding company, which owns 100 percent equity interest in China Mobile (HK) Group Limited" ...
"As a mainland China-based company listed and incorporated in Hong Kong, China Mobile is a red chip."
"Red chips stocks (traditional Chinese: 紅籌股, simplified Chinese: 红筹股) are the stocks of mainland China companies incorporated outside mainland China and listed in Hong Kong. The actual business is based in mainland China and usually controlled by shareholders in mainland China. "
So effectively while its listed as incorporated in Hong Kong, China Mobile is really a mainland company controlled by the Chinese state and mostly does business up there (People's aside). Almost all Hong Kong telecom companies are privately owned (PCCW aside) and I don't want people getting the impression that China Mobile is big in Hong Kong. I figure almost all their staff (and users) on the mainland somewhere. They list their HQ as Hong Kong probably to make it easier for them to list on the HK Stock Exchange.
You mean hawking its latest wares, no?
As a Chinese I'm not going to rejoice so early.
As spilled earlier by other sources, the Palm Telecom is planning to introduce is Treo. Dunno what they are thinking if this is true, importing an out-of-production old timer model that I've been relying on for quite some years (acquired from nice sweet black market). And some major problems still remain if the rumored Palm phone is indeed the Pre:
1. Price
China Telecom divides its phones into 3 categories:
Reasonable Price (set under CNY 1,000, around USD 146.4)
3G Promoters (3G phones to encourage subsribers to migrate from 2G to 3G)
All Star Phones (those sexy gadges priced to kill)
Well, it's basically clear which of the category the Pre is going to be. It will be a big problem if it comes out at CNY 8,000-ish (USD 1,171). According to Telecom's way of doing business, this is quite likely.
2. WiFi
As an "internet phone", a Pre isn't much of a Pre without WiFi connection. And as we know, Chinese government always has a problem against WiFi.
3. The Black Market
The so called "big 3 carriers" (Telecom, Unicom, and China Mobile) are always unearthly late about introducing new, sexy phones. And when they come into this old, old country, they are usually already out-dated, WiFi-less, and outrageously over-priced. Chinese gadget fans have long developed a habit of relying on black markets. Such smuggled wares are always more functionable, and affordable. I'd prefer a WCDMA or GSM version of Pre with a USIM slot than getting a formally introduced unit from Telecom somewhere between 2019 to 2029.
Plus, I'm sure the female-ish E.T. in the picture will freak most Chinese folks out.