 While
the rest of world uses
W-CDMA for 3G
services, China decided to use
TD-SCDMA for
its 3G service with the general problem that not too many TD-SCDMA compatible
handsets are available today. Anyway, China Mobile, China's largest mobile phone
network operator, is testing dozens of handsets for the network, and one of the
TD-SCDMA compatible handset is a Windows Mobile 6 handset, an executive at the
operator said Monday.
China Mobile expects to finish building 3G networks in eight cities by the end
of this year and at least 10 by the time the Summer Olympic Games open in
Beijing next August.
Among the phones being tested is the S876 from Taiwan's Inventec Appliances (IAC),
which may become the first 3G handset running Windows Mobile 6 to launch in
China. While it's hard to definitively hand the crown to IAC, it was the only
handset maker to offer details of a finished device at the GSM Association's
Mobile Asia Congress in Macau earlier this month, Yahoo! News reported today.
According to Yahoo! News, the handset is a dual mode device, able to switch from
3G TD-SCDMA to GSM/GPRS and includes a 2.4" touchscreen, a 3 megapixel autofocus
camera and micro SD card slot.
IAC's S876 will be available to Chinese users in the second quarter of 2008,
said Steven Qin, an executive in charge of smartphones at IAC's Shanghai
operations.
However, other handset makers, including Zhejiang Holley Communications (Holley
Comm), have said they were working on Windows Mobile 6-based 3G handsets for
China as well.
Cheers ~ Arne
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