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Tim Cook spotted at China Mobile's headquarters
Apple's acting CEO Tim Cook was spotted at the headquarters of China Mobile today, lending credence to recent rumors that Apple is in talks to bring the iPhone to the carrier. China Mobile is the largest mobile phone operator in the world, with over 600 million subscribers, so bringing the iPhone to the carrier is seen as an important step for Apple's growth in the Asian market. As noted by MICGadget, a reporter from First Financial Daily was sitting in the the lobby of China Mobile earlier today when she spotted Tim Cook flanked by seven to eight people. She quickly snapped the picture you see here. From her blog: This morning, around 10, Apple COO Tim Cook is spotted in the lobby of China Mobile's HQ, accompanied by 7-8 people. Probably Cook is talking with executives from China Mobile to discuss bilateral cooperation for the iPhone. Both China and America flags are seen in the lobby, and Cook seems to be happy. A month ago we told you about rumors that Apple and China Mobile had reached a consensus on a 4G iPhone that would support China Mobile's TD-LTE 4G technology. At the time, sources said that negotiations weren't complete. Given that Tim Cook was spotted in China Mobile's headquarters today, it seems apparent that, at the very least, negotiations are ongoing, if not almost wrapped up in time for the next iPhone launch this fall.
Apple, China Mobile supposedly reach agreement on 4G iPhone
A story at MarketWatch suggests that Apple and China Mobile have reached a consensus on a 4G iPhone. Unfortunately, China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou was stingy with the details. Wang noted that negotiations with Apple aren't complete, and didn't provide details other than to say that his company and Apple have reached an agreement. China Mobile currently serves 4 million iPhone customers. Last January, Reuters reported that Apple would support China Mobile's TD-LTE 4G technology. Apple's support is a significant boost for China Mobile and could prompt other handset makers to follow Apple's lead. [Via MacRumors]
LG steps into Nokia's MeeGo void (updated)
Sure, Nokia will ship a single MeeGo handset this year. But after that, MeeGo, Nokia's previous strategic smartphone platform, will be pushed into the incubation lab as the team shifts focus to future user experiences. According to Reuters, LG Electronics has stepped in to fill the void by joining a working group with ZTE and China Mobile intent on developing a handset version of the software. This, according to a member of the MeeGo technical steering group, Valtteri Halla, speaking at a developer conference today. Of course, LG was talking about MeeGo phones back in January of 2010 when it was showing off its short-lived Intel Moorestown-based GW990 (pictured above). Happy now, MeeGo fans? You should be, we certainly are. Update: LG has issued a statement meant to dampen any early enthusiasm we may have felt about an LG handset running MeeGo. According to the Reuters update, an LG spokesman says, "At this point in time LG has no definitive plans to mass produce devices with MeeGo other than car infotainment systems."
Apple interested in building 4G LTE iPhone "early"
Apple may be looking to build a TD-LTE iPhone earlier than expected, according to a comment from China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou. Jianzhou singled out Steve Jobs while speaking about the possibility of an LTE iPhone outside a conference meeting on Friday. The chairman said "Jobs has expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date." China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in China as well as the world, is preparing to launch large-scale tests of its TD-LTE network in select Chinese cities including Shanghai and Hangzhou. LTE or Long Term Evolution is the next generation in cellular technology that promises significantly faster mobile broadband speeds. It is commonly referred to as 4G. These upcoming tests are the precursor to a full-scale launch expected by the end of the year. An earlier demonstration produced download speeds of 80 Mbps, which is 20x faster than current cellular network technology. LTE is poised to explode in China in the next several years. IHS iSuppli predicts capital spending on LTE will double to US$100 million in 2011 and balloon to $1.3 billion by 2014. China's total mobile user base has grown to over 869 million subscribers and is the largest in the world. While its mobile subscriber numbers are high, China's mobile phone penetration is relatively low at 64%. Whether or not Apple will be "early" with a China Mobile iPhone remains to be seen, but this untapped market presents a unique opportunity for growth that Apple would not want to ignore.
LTE iPhone noise builds steam with a grain of Wang
Has it got the fourgees? Well, if you're talking about Apple's iPhone and believe what you hear from China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou, it very soon will. Following in the well publicized footsteps of Verizon CEO Dan Mead, Mr. Jianzhou tells us that Steve Jobs himself "has expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date." Of course, the crux of the issue will be in ascertaining how early "an early date" might be, but it's not completely out of the realm of reason to believe that Apple may already be cranking away on an LTE-capable iPhone 5. We all know how much Steve loves to compare measurements with the competition and the iPhone's lack of a fourth G will probably be driving him mad by the time the summer rolls around. Either way, we've now got two extremely senior dudes claiming LTE is on Apple's roadmap.
Apple's mobile partner in China announces its own iPhone rival
The parent company of China Unicom, Apple's sole partner for carrying the iPhone in China, revealed plans on Monday to release its own mobile computing platform. Dubbed "Wophone," the platform will compete directly with Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Last year, Apple partnered with China Unicom, the nation's second largest mobile carrier, to release the iPhone 4 in China. The exclusive availability of the iPhone on China Unicom's network helped the carrier compete with rivals China Mobile and China Telecom for new customers in China's nascent 3G wireless services market. In a statement, China Unicom said it hopes Wophone will help the company and its manufacturing partners develop a broader variety of more affordable 3G devices and introduce them to market more quickly. The rapid introduction of new 3G devices could help woo new customers away from market-leading China Mobile who released its own mobile platform, "Ophone," in 2009. China Mobile leads the wireless market in China with about 589 million total subscribers, but has only 22.6 million customers for its higher revenue 3G services. China Unicom said 15.5 million of its 170 million subscribers were on 3G at the end of January.
China Telecom close to inking deal with Apple for the CDMA iPhone 4
In a research note, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White suggest China Telecom is close to completing a deal with Apple to carry the CDMA iPhone 4. White cites a report on Chinese website NetEase that claims one branch of the wireless operator is already accepting pre-orders for the CDMA iPhone 4. He also refers to a microblog post, reportedly from a China Telecom employee, proclaiming that the first CDMA iPhone call has been placed on its network. "It is unclear how pre-orders are available before an official announcement has been made by the two companies," White writes, "however, the key takeaway is that the relationship between Apple and China Telecom is clearly moving in the right direction, and we believe that a deal will eventually be announced this year." A deal with China Telecom would help Apple break further into China's telecom market, the largest in the world with over 842 million total wireless subscribers. Currently, China Unicom is the sole carrier of the iPhone 4 in China and is the #2 carrier in the Asian country with 167 million wireless subscribers. China Telecom comes in third place with 90 million subscribers. This Asian Pacific market, according to White, accounts for almost 58 percent of the world's estimated 550 million CDMA customers. The remaining carrier, government-controlled China Mobile, has a whopping 584 million subscribers and is rumored to be negotiating with Apple to develop an iPhone compatible with the carrier's future TD-LTE network.
China Mobile says Apple to support TD-LTE
In an interview with Chinese news portal Sina, China Mobile's Chairman Wang Jianzhou was quoted (Chinese) as saying that Apple would get behind the carrier's next-gen TD-LTE network technology: "Apple has its own problems to deal with and has many things to develop, and currently TD development is not on its timetable," he said. "Apple has been clear that it will support TD-LTE ... These two years we have been discussing the issue. The situation is currently moving forward step by step." If Apple has indeed thrown its support behind TD-LTE, it would be a significant boost for China Mobile as it could prompt other handset makers to follow Apple's lead. Up until now, China Unicom has been the only carrier to officially carry the iPhone. China Mobile has taken some dubious measures to keep customers from jumping on the unicorn Unicom, including providing online instructions (Chinese) for how to activate an iPhone on China Mobile's network, as well as providing SIM card cutting services at many of the company's outlets. Of course, there's much to gain from Apple's point of view as well. The company's recent earnings call showed significant growth in China and the rest of Asia, and Tim Cook indicated that the company would focus more resources there. [Via Reuters]
NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, KT form partnership, every other carrier in the world should probably be concerned
What happens when you put two of the world's most technologically advanced wireless operators -- Japan's NTT DoCoMo and South Korea's KT -- in the same room with the largest operator in the world, China Mobile? We don't know, but we're going to find out... and something tells us it's going to be awesome. DoCoMo broke the news this week that the three titans of industry have formed a "business collaboration" designed to "provide mobile customers with new experiences and greater convenience in the rapidly growing regional market of Northeast Asia." They specifically say that they'll be eying "international roaming, enterprise services, LTE and other network technologies, smartphones and common platforms" -- and whenever we hear "partnership" and "roaming" in the same sentence, we can't help but wonder whether it could be extremely good news for customers traveling among the carriers involved. Follow the break for the press release.
Motorola's MT716 OPhone launched in China, looks just like a Droid with Cliq's keyboard
If only this was a hoax. Yes, that's some bitter talk alright, because this Motorola MT716 from China Mobile is almost the perfect Droid that we once had on our dusty wish list: a similar slider form factor but with a hard-cap keyboard, as opposed to one with spongy mashers. In fact, eagle-eyed readers might have already spotted that this is the exact same keyboard as featured on the Cliq. Compared to its distant relative, other differences on this OPhone include an 8 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash and 720p camcorder feature), an extra VGA front-facing camera, TD-SCDMA radio, WAPI connectivity (WiFi-compatible), and CMMB TV streaming; otherwise, you'll find the same weedy 600MHz TI OMAP3430 chip, 480 x 854 LCD, AGPS and Bluetooth 2.1 inside. Now if you'll excuse us -- we have a petition to write up.
Samsung Galaxy S keeps up global offensive with three Chinese launches
Samsung's done an admirable job of pushing its Galaxy S line far and wide already, but when you enter the Chinese market -- a market with a billion wireless customers -- you're potentially taking things to a whole new level. Sammy has crafted HSPA, EV-DO, and TD-SCDMA versions of its high-end Android phone for China Unicom, China Telecom, and juggernaut China Mobile, respectively, all offering the same 4-inch Super AMOLED display seen elsewhere around the world. The Telecom model launches first -- this month, in fact -- but all three versions will be available before the end of the year. Follow the break for the full press release. %Gallery-101688%
Vodafone flips stake in China Mobile for a cool $6.6B
British wireless giant Vodafone has stakes in operators around the world -- perhaps notably its 45 percent share in Verizon Wireless -- but the company has recently made it clear that it plans to aggressively reevaluate all of its holdings, and those words are starting to turn into actions on news that its 3.2 percent piece of China Mobile is no longer. That's significant if for no other reason than the fact that China Mobile is far and away the largest wireless carrier in the world by subscriber count -- a total that exceeds half a billion -- which means that Voda's mere 3.2 percent share, acquired between 2000 and 2002, was valued at roughly $6.6 billion. What this means for Vodafone's numerous other holdings remains unclear, but needless to say, it's possible this isn't the last sizable transaction we'll see over the next few months.
Sony Ericsson announces China-bound A8i Ophone: its first-ever TD-SCDMA smartphone
We're actually surprised it's taken that long for Sony Ericsson to join China Mobile's TD-SCDMA bandwagon (potentially 554 million accounts!), but as the old Chinese proverb goes: "it's never too late to fix the fence, even if you've already lost a few sheep." The new Ophone 2.0 handset in question is the A8i, which bears much resemblance to the oh-so-popular Xperia X10 (also available in China) except for the smaller 3.5-inch touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, CMMB mobile TV feature, and the seemingly missing Timescape plus Mediascape apps. No prices announced just yet, but we're told that both the "Titanium Black" and "Shiny White" editions will be heavily subsidized when they come out in October.
Motorola Ming A1680, MT810, and XT806 begin their Android mercy mission in China
Motorola's venerable MING handset revisions were just made official in three Android-toting varieties for China Unicom (model A1680 pictured above left), China Mobile (MT810, pictured center), and China Telecom (XT806, on the right). The TD-SCDMA riding MT810 ships with the Android derived OPhone 2.0 operating system and two touchscreen displays: a 3.2-inch stylus-friendly resistive touchscreen and a second transparent capacitive cover that provides a finger-friendly experience when closed. Other specs include 720 x 480 video capture, 720p video playback, and support for China's CMMB mobile television spec. China Telecom's XT806 is built on Android 2.1 with GPS, 720p video capture, and support for both CDMA EVDO and GSM for global wanderings. Finally, China Unicom's A1680 packs a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Chinese WAPI WiFi, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and Motorola's sixth-generation SoftStylus handwriting system.
HTC starts selling phones in China under its own name
It's long been the case that if you wanted a HTC handset over in the world's most populous nation, you'd have had to look for its rebadged variant under the Dopod brand. But, as of today, that is no more. The prolific Taiwanese phone maker has decided that its name is now recognizable and valuable enough in China to be put on its own hardware and is kicking off a campaign with four own-branded phones. The Wildfire and Desire we're all familiar with already, while the Tianxi looks like a mildly tweaked HD2 and the Tianyi is a mix-and-match of design elements from the rest of HTC's portfolio. The company's also announcing a partnership with China Mobile to bring these puppies to market, so it's looking like smooth sailing ahead. Full PR after the break.
Mysterious Dell Mini 3v outed by Chinese mobile regulator, OS unknown
Fancy playing a game of "guess the phone?" Dell's got one for you -- the folks over at Chinese mobile regulator TENAA have once again prematurely outed another handset from said computer giant. As usual, there's no mention on the screen size, screen type or even the OS, but we're told that this plain-looking Mini 3v runs on both TD-SCDMA (i.e. China Mobile) and GSM networks (HSDPA supported). The photos also reveal a 5 megapixel camera with flash, along with a possible front-facing camera. This may sound like a promising package, but you won't be able to make full use of this phone outside China: there's WAPI instead of WiFi, along with a TV functionality that we assume to be the China-exclusive CMMB digital TV. That said, there may still be hope with a slight spec tweak and some Froyo love for this strange child. Update: commenter thugsin313 pointed out the stylus at the back of the Mini 3v, which suggests that this is a resistive touchscreen. This makes sense considering the complexity of Chinese characters.
GPS 800G watch phone gets the job done (and little else)
Watch phones clearly haven't hit the mainstream yet, though a resurgence of Dick Tracy may very well turn that around. Given that we're probably years, if not centuries, away from that happening, it's up to niche import shops like Alibaba to bring us goods like these. The GPS 800G -- delivered by none other than Shanghai Zhiyuan Vacuum Electric Company, of course -- manages to handle time telling, texting, GPS routing and even emergency calling. Oh, and normal calling as well. Looks as if you'll need to ping the supplier in order to get a lock on pricing, but we can't say with a straight face that it'll be worth your while.
Motorola MT810 Ophone to sport both capacitive and resistive digitizers, makes TV cameo
Remember the Motorola MT820 that got leaked in China last week? Well, for some mysterious reason it's now adopted a new name -- MT810 (but with the same codename, "North Sea"). According to IT168, the tipster isn't exactly clear on whether the two model numbers refer to the same hardware configuration, but a quick search on the Chinese regulator's database reveals just MT810, and that it'll work on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network and WAPI (China's own take on WiFi). Going back to the latest leak: we're now learning that the camera will capture 720p footage -- apparently a first on the Ophone platform -- and a minimum of 5-megapixel stills, accompanied by an LED flash. As for the flip cover, turns out it also serves as a capacitive touch layer, while the screen underneath is coupled with the good-old resistive digitizer -- ideal for those who prefer writing Chinese with a pointy stylus instead of a sausage. Sadly, the tipster's still mum about the cover's rumored 3D filter capability, which would in theory go nicely with some live soccer on the phone's CMMB mobile TV capability, as teased by a recent commercial on China's national television -- video after the break, if you can bear the jealousy. [Thanks, Rachel]%Gallery-92553%
Nokia cozies up to TD-SCDMA some more, launches China Mobile versions of the X5 and C5, joins TD Forum
Though the standard GSM technology path has always been (and will likely always be) Nokia's bread and butter, Espoo has warmed to the idea of alternatives in the past couple years -- they've ended up establishing a reasonably decent lineup with Verizon in the States, and for China, TD-SCDMA is the name of the game these days. To that end, the company has received its membership card to the TD Forum in the mail (finally joining its Nokia Siemens joint venture) and announced two new candybars: the X5 and C5. Actually, it's a bit unfair to call them both "new" since the C5's already seen an international introduction, but the X5 is a fresh design that mimics the design of its X3 and X6 cousins with a 5 megapixel cam and 2.4-inch QVGA display, becoming the company's first S60 device with support for TD-SCDMA to deliver on a promise made back in 2008. Interestingly, China Mobile's C5 is quite a bit different from the version you'll find elsewhere, rocking an entirely different ID and enjoying an additional 1.8 megapixels in its camera sensor for a grand total of 5. The X5 should start to filter into the market this quarter, while the C5 come in the third quarter. Follow the break for the press release.
Intel unveils Atom-based Queensbay system-on-chip, in-car infotainment, China Mobile partnership
Can't get enough of Intel's Atom? Try the new Tunnel Creek system-on-chip flavor that the company has announced. It's part of the Queensbay platform, something of a Menlow successor that's better suited for MIDs and the like thanks to its greater RAM capacity (still only 1GB), PCIe bus (opening the door to Ion), and integrated gigabit LAN. All that with a consumption of just 5TDP leaves our friend Chippy from UMPC Portal to say the platform could be "the natural choice for simple, low-cost MIDs." As Intel ramps up for its Developer Forum the company is also touting its partnership with the Chinese auto manufacturer HawTai to produce a MeeGo-based infotainment system that, wait for it, also runs on Atom. And, finally, China Mobile is looking to rely on Intel chips for "targeted platforms powering its wireless networks" and to "provide our broadband wireless network the benefits of world class energy efficiency." Next up: Atom-based pacemakers, espresso machines, and puppy dogs.
