china

Marvell sees a home for their chips in Chinese low cost Windows Phones

January 31, 2012 | By Surur

Marvell_Armada Dailytech.com has interviewed Jack Kang, director of Marvell’s applications processor business unit, and reports the company is very interested in Windows Phone and Windows 8.

“If there’s Windows Phones in China, there will probably be Windows Phones with Marvell in China.” he said.

Kang feels his firm’s biggest strength is providing “quality low-cost devices” and also expected to ship ARM-based Windows 8 laptops in Q4 2012. “Microsoft already said Windows 8 will run on ARM. And we build ARM devices, so….”

Marvell used to be a division of Intel before spinning off in 2006 and has found its processors recently mainly in Blackberry smartphones. Its flagship processor is currently the 40 nm ARMADA processor, which does come in dual core configurations with an emphasis on low cost and which has found a home in the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

Suning already offering Windows Phones for pre-order in China

January 27, 2012 | By Surur

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Chinese support for Windows Phone 7 is only expected in the second half od 2012, but it seems no-one told Suning, Microsoft’s Chinese retail partner for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.

The large retailer has been passing round a circular calling the 6 handsets, which include 3 Windows Phones, the “6 most anticipated products in the year of the dragon” and are offering the Nokia Lumia 800, 900 and HTC Titan for pre-order.

Buyers will have to put down ?100 (about 16 US$) to secure the phones, which translates into a ?300 reduction when the phone actually ships.

WPSauce notes that a pre-order 6 months before availability seems unlikely, suggesting Chinese support has been moved up quite a bit.

China has recently overtaken USA as the largest smartphone market in the world, and is one of Nokia’s stronger markets. I am sure the company cant wait to bring their devices to the region.

Via WPSauce and WPXAP.

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Nokia Windows Phone handsets coming to China in first half of 2012

January 20, 2012 | By Surur

A Nokia spokesman has told ITWorld that the Finnish company is planning to release a Windows Phone handset for the Chinese market in the first half of 2012.

The announcement is significant, given that the Chinese market will likely require customizations for the region, including changes to Marketplace to comply with the Chinese Government requirements.

ZTE is also planning a Chinese release for a Windows Phone 7 handset, but this will only come in Q3 2012.

Nokia has a 28% market share in China, and if the product is accepted there it may significantly boost Windows Phone 7 shipments.

New LG Windows Phone handset shows up in China

January 5, 2012 | By Surur

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An unannounced LG Windows Phone 7 handset, which looks pretty cool, has shown up on the China Weibo micro-blogging site.

The handset, according to the description, may be an engineering sample, with the comment saying:

"LG’s engineering machine, etc. when you can see at CES. Not for sale."

Maybe CES will be more interesting than we think for Windows Phone after all.

Source: chenkaiHome via WPCentral.com

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Nokia to face Windows Phone competition in China

December 31, 2011 | By Surur

The Chinese smartphone market has rapidly overtaken the size, if not the value, of the US market.

Nokia is a very strong brand there, but Digitimes notes by the time the company launches its Windows Phone handsets there they may face competition from more nimble Asian competitors already producing Windows Phone 7 handsets in the region.

Noting that Nokia’s devices will only reach China some time in H1 2012, and have to spend some time adapting to local 3G technologies, they observe Nokia’s handsets will face competition on the high end from Samsung and HTC and on the low end from entry-level models by ZTE, Huawei Device and Lenovo, who have all thrown their hat into the Windows Phone ring.

With Tango expected to lower the hardware cost of Windows Phone handsets, Digitimes expects even more China-based handset makers to bring out low-priced Tango phones to compete with Nokia Lumia phones.

Microsoft To Delay Windows Phone Launch To 2012 In China

December 5, 2011 | By Pradeep

Last December Microsoft announced that it will enter into China with Windows Phone in late 2011. But now Microsoft has decided to delay its Windows Phone launch to first half of 2012.

According to Microsoft,

“The delay is to ensure local citizens have a great experience with Windows Phones”, and is working closely with its partners in China to determine through what channels and when Windows Phones will be available regionally.

Microsoft is expecting Chinese handset makers including Lenovo, ZTE , Huawei Technologies and Nokia to help Windows Phone spread in Chinese market. According to Mark Natkin, managing director for Marbridge Consulting,

In China, Microsoft has a strong partner in Nokia, considering that the smartphone vendor has a well-known brand and a far-reaching retail distribution, Natkin said. Microsoft could also choose to target its Windows Phone 7 devices at China’s business users, a segment of the market few smartphone vendors have gone after, he said.

Source: Computer World

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Nokia Lumia 800 coming to Russia, Lumia 710 to China soon

November 29, 2011 | By Surur

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According to WP7forum.ru the Nokia Lumia 800 will be released on the 7th December in Russia and will be available in Cyan and Black for 20,990 roubles. See the event on Facebook here.

A bit further east, the Nokia Lumia 710 is also available for pre-order, with the Yellow version available for HK $ 3000 yuan or $470 according to welovewp.hk.

The expansion of these smartphones into other areas is sure to contribute to the sales volume of Windows Phone, especially areas where the Nokia brand is particularly strong.

Via 1800pocketpc.com

Thanks Starky for the tip.

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Nokia Lumia 710 hands-on video

November 25, 2011 | By Surur

NetbookNews have posted this brief hands-on review of the Nokia Lumia 710.

They note the device is chunkier than the Nokia Lumia 800, but runs exactly the same processor as the other Nokia Windows Phone.

The phone is Nokia’s low-end play and should see wide distribution all around the world, including China. The handset is also rumoured for T-Mobile USA.

The Nokia Lumia 710 (Sabre) is an upcoming Windows Phone with a 3.7” ClearBlack TFT screen, HSPA+ data speeds, and a 1.4 GHz single-core processor. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera, no front-facing camera, and 8 GB of storage. It will be released in many countries before 2011, however won’t be available in the United States until Q1 2012. Full specs…

Microsoft finds Windows Phone distributor in China

November 25, 2011 | By Surur

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Penn-Olson, who covers Asian Tech News, is reporting that Microsoft has found a Chinese distributor for its Windows Phone 7 handsets for both promotion and distribution.

Suning, a High Street electronics retailer with over 700 stores across China, is apparently the front runner, with Microsoft apparently planning to use both Suning’s bricks-and-mortar and online stores in promoting both WP7 and the next version of its desktop OS, Windows 8.

Windows Phone 7 recently managed Chinese support with the Mango update, and also signed up major Chinese OEM ZTE to create competitive handsets for the market.

Penn-Olson notes that despite the lack of official support for China until recently, there is already a lot of support from services in the country in the form of apps.

China recently overtook the US as the largest smartphone market, and it is clear Microsoft wants to be a player in the new arena.

Is Lenovo testing Windows Phone 7?

October 29, 2011 | By Surur

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Some pictures of the Lenovo LePhone S2, an Android phone, has popped up on the winphonexap.com forums, supposedly uploaded by a Lenovo employee.

The pictures show several screens, including the home screen, multi-tasking and threads.

Lenovo is not one of the announced Windows Phone 7 partners, but Microsoft has been in discussion with this them, and also ZTE and Huawei to bring Windows Phone to China.

The Lenovo lePhone S2 should be perfectly capable of running Windows Phone 7, with a 1 Ghz QSD 8250 Snapdragon processor, 800×480 capacitive screen and 512 MB RAM.

However since taking screen shots is now pretty easy on Windows Phone 7, it is also now pretty easy to fake Windows Phone running on another device, so we will have to wait for video to be really convinced.

See more pictures after the break.

Continue reading →

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Developer news: Chinese developers can submit apps, Indian users can buy and both NoDo and Mango apps can be maintained

October 18, 2011 | By Surur

Microsoft has announced the expansion of the Windows Phone 7 marketplace to India, meaning Windows phone 7 users with a Live ID registered to India are now able to buy apps and Games in Marketplace.

While Chinese users are still not able to buy apps, Chinese developers can now however start submitting apps to Marketplace, allowing Microsoft to tap another huge source of talent.

Lastly, Microsoft has now released a solution for the Frozen NoDo app problem, where developers were not able to update the NoDo version of their app after upgrading it to Mango. Both versions of the apps are now independently updatable, meaning there should be no hesitation by developers in upgrading their apps to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

Mango on the rise says HTC North Asia

October 13, 2011 | By Surur

HTC’s North Asia president has told reporters that the smartphone world has become more diversified, leaving an opening for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

With the OS now supporting the Chinese language and offering significantly increased support for local content, he expected shipments of Mango phones to increase in that region in the 4th quarter.

He also said HTC and Microsoft have maintained a good partnership and will continue to work on expanding Mango market penetration.

The launch of Mango in China was also accompanied by the launch of Marketplace in the region, which will be supporting applications contributed by local developers. Handsets are expected to follow soon.

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Stephen Elop: Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 handsets will roll out from country to country, starting in Q4

September 14, 2011 | By Surur

In this interview in China Stephen Elop talks about the roll-out of Windows Phone 7 handsets, saying it will start in Q4 and progress from country to country, when it is felt the timing is right.

He also confirmed Nokia will add value in terns of navigation and entertainment, suggesting we will see some elements of the old Ovi store music platform also arriving on Windows Phone 7.

Via winmobile.se

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