Android’s Chinese Manufacturers Form Alliance To Defend From Apple and Microsoft Patent Lawsuits

Digitimes is reporting that Chinese OEM’s could be quietly banding together to fight off the ever looming threat of patent lawsuits from Android arch nemeses like Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. The Chinese coalition would be formed by ZTE, Lenovo, TCL, Coolpad and Konka who, it’s assumed, would pool their patent resources and share information on how to work around alleged patent infringements and keep from paying the dreaded “licensing fee.”
As the Chinese smartphone market grows — currently the largest in the world — OEM’s are sure to draw attention from Apple and Microsoft who spend much of their time attacking Android manufacturers.
[Digitimes via Electronista]

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Dell partners with Chinese search engine Baidu for Streak Pro

Dell’s American Android ambitions may have soured after lackluster sales of the Streak 5 and Streak 7 tablets, but it’s more than willing to take advantage of the rapidly expanding Chinese market. Since Google’s ubiquitous presence isn’t nearly as ubiquitous across the Pacific, it’s partnering with search engine Baidu to deliver services to their latest creation, the Streak Pro. The phone will use the Baidu Yi platform, a fork of Gingerbread’s open-source code that remains compatible with Android apps. Dell has effectively ended its Android products in America after it stopped selling the Streak 7 tablet through T-Mobile earlier this month.

Dell is the first company to produce a Yi phone, though they’ve released more subtly modified Android phones in the territory in the past. And just because it’s releasing to a traditionally low-income market doesn’t mean it won’t be impressive: the Streak Pro is aiming for the growing high end with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen and qHD resolution. That’s enough to match most of the flagship phones in the US and Europe, and considerably more powerful than any ARM-based Dell products produced before.
Baidu apps are already commonplace on many Chinese Android smartphones, and the Yi platform will be an even greater integration with the company’s far-reaching services. It’s unclear how closely Yi will follow Android’s development path – they could simply update the modified Android code incrementally, as Barnes & Noble has done with its Nook tablets, or continue with independence development on their own. The latter seems unlikely, as apps published for Android would become increasingly nonfunctional the further that Yi’s code strays away from Android’s source. [via Engadget]

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Samsung Galaxy S II Duos Headed to China with Dual GSM/CDMA Support

After revealing a duo of dual-SIM handsets yesterday in the form of the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos, Samsung will add to their lineup of handsets with expanded radio capabilities. A new variation on the Samsung Galaxy S II is headed to China and will support both GSM and CDMA2000. The phone is known as — you guessed it — the Samsung Galaxy S II Duos. The specs largely mirror previous GS2 iterations and include a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, and 8MP camera with 1080p video recording. The phone ships with Android 2.3 but should be in line for an Ice Cream Sandwich update along with other members of the Galaxy S II roster. The world phone will be available from China Telecom.
[Samsung via GSMArena]

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Dell Streak Pro D43 hits China

We have seen a leaked Dell Streak Pro 101DL that is powered by Baidu’s Yi platform, and here is news of the Dell Streak Pro D43 (the 101DL is the Japanese counterpart) that has just hit China. This is the first Baidu Yi-powered smartphone in the world, and it will come with similar specifications as that of the 101DL, including a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, quadband HSPA support, a 4.3” AMOLED display at 960 × 540 resolution, 8GB of internal memory, and a microSD memory card slot for future expansion purposes. What are some of the features? We are looking at basic voice control in Mandarin, the ability to synchronize your contacts, Baidu Chinese input, Yi’s very own app store and 100GB of free cloud storage that is capable of supporting multimedia upload and secure file sharing. You can more or less say that the Yi platform is a different version of the Android platform, although it will not come with any of Google’s services.

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Samsung, Huawei And Nokia Beat Apple In China Mobile Phone Manufacturing

Big news out of China as Huawei has beat out Apple as is now the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones in China.
Reuters reported the news Friday saying that Apple wasn’t as nimble or flexible as Samsung and Huawei. Despite just now breaking back into the U.S. market, Nokia still holds a huge position in Asian and European markets.
Apple has started a major expansion in China as far as their retail efforts go. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple has six retail stores with plans to open dozens more. They also have 200 mono branded stores and over 7,000 points of sale.
What’s hurting Apple in the iPhone department is the fact that they didn’t build a TD-SCDMA iPhone version for China Mobile. China Mobile is the world’s largest cell phone carrier with over 600 million users. To put that in perspective for US readers, China Mobile’s market is 3 times the size of Verizon Wireless and AT&T combined.
Aside from not having an iPhone on their countries largest carrier, Chinese customers are echoing the rest of the world when it comes to smartphones. Android is winning by a lot in China, even with Google’s rocky relationship with their government.
source: Fortune/CNN

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China Unicom drops 3G iPad 2 quest

China Unicom must have gotten sit and tired of all the waiting, that the company has decided to give up on introducing the 3G enabled iPad 2 to the masses in China directly. Deputy general manager of the leading telecom carrier in China, Li Gang, recently commented that the iPad 2 was a far more suitable candidate to be sold through the standard IT sales network model, making it very different from the iPhone. This has led China Unicom to ditch their initial plans of introducing the 3G iPad 2 for the moment, where the company will instead work on delivering a more convenient 3G data surfing service to the masses.
I must say, it has been quite some time already that China Unicom talked up about an iPad rollout since last year. Unfortunately for them, the 3G iPad has yet to pick up a network access license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), so after spending so much time waiting, China Unicom finally decided that they have had enough and will concentrate on other aspects of their business first – that is, unless, the MIIT does an about turn that is so sudden, the possibility of a directly available 3G iPad 2 remains as slim as the device itself.

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Meizu MX launches January 1, 2012

Meizu just broke the ice and finally announced its 2012 flagship smartphone, the MX. Headed to mainland China January 1st, expect an initial cost of ¥2,999 ($470). It will pack some serious power from the included 1.4GHz Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core processor and 1GB RAM. It will also sport a 4” ASV display with a 960×640 pixel ratio. Initially, the device will only be available with 16GB of internal storage, but expect a 32GB version later on.

As you can see from the picture, the MX will certainly include a heavily masked version of Android 2.3.5; I’ve never been a fan of anything but vanilla Android, but this skin seems to appeal to my taste. Jack Wong (CEO) has also stated the device will eventually be updated to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The MX also has an impressive 8MP rear-facing camera supporting smile detection and an option for shooting panaramic photgraphs. It records in 1080p as well, but no HDMI output will be included. If you feel the need to go learn Chinese – go check out the official word on Meizu’s website. Or just Google Translate it like the rest of us.
Press Release:

Calling all dreamers, the Meizu MX is unveiled
HONG KONG—9:30 AM GMT +8, October 6—Today Meizu unveils a new product, the Meizu MX. Borrowing the first two letters from the Chinese characters of the word “dream,” or “meng xiang,” the MX is a dream phone in all its senses. The MX comes with a dual-core 1.4GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel back-illuminated camera and LED flash, along with a gyroscope and other sensors. Its design is clean, intuitive and minimalistic, which is the result of countless discussions, prototypes, and revisions.
The Meizu MX has a gorgeous 4-inch, high resolution (292 PPI) AVS screen with the ideal 3:2 aspect ratio. Compared to wider 4.3-inch screens, the screen edges are easily reachable with your fingers, while providing better readability for text; both in horizontal and landscape mode. In addition, the phone comes with Meizu’s unique Flyme OS, which features a custom designed UI, as well as cloud services such as data syncing, music store (China-only), and an applications market. The Meizu MX also features a Meizu-only innovation, namely our patented situation-aware bottom light keys.
MX offers ample connectivity and media sharing options such as a micro USB port, coaxial digital audio output, MHL, USB Host and other features.
A 16GB version of the MX will be available January 1, 2012 priced at 2 999 CNY.
With the MX, Meizu is taking its first steps into the international market. Meizu is opening a store later this month in Hong Kong, on Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok.
About Meizu
Founded in 2003, we began producing music players which later came to be world renowned. Since 2008, all our efforts have been focused on making great smartphones, which have made us one of China’s most loved smartphone makers.
Since the beginning, something we have always held dear was the power of daring to dream. We believe in focus, in doing few things, but doing them really well. To us, focus is the key to achieving and exceeding our dreams. In focusing, our team is devoted, plans for the long-term, and strives for perfection. As a company, we want to transcend convention and imagination, with the ultimate goal of making products worthy of dreaming about.

)

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Lenovo LePhone S760 unveiled for China

China’s getting a lot of Android attention these days, and among its home-grown manufacturers no one’s treating them better than Lenovo. Engadget spotted the latest entry in latest entry in le smartphone line, the LePhone S760, a mid-range Gingerbread device with at least one distinguishing feature. The 3.7-inch screen uses an AMOLED panel, still relatively novel in the Chinese market.

As far as hardware goes, the phone has a 1Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM, making it roughly the equal of the original Nexus One or DROID Incredible. That’s still plenty of power to handle Android 2.3.5, and should keep the off-contract price nice and low. You can spot front and rear cameras in the trade show photos. Since it’s running a pretty heavily modified version of Android and Lenovo’s shown no hesitance to stray from the safe and happy pastures of Google in the past, we’re pretty sure this one won’t have the Android Market or its associate Google apps.
Like all of Lenovo’s smartphone offerings thus far, don’t expect this one to show up in the US, though Chinese buyers can get one before the end of the year. The company’s 5, 7 and 10-inch LePad tablets from earlier today have a much better chance of crossing the Pacific, and the Tegra 3-powered 1080p monster the IdeaPad K2 tablet is almost certain to show up in the US eventually. So why not smartphone love for Americans, Lenovo? We’re good enough for your laptops, after all.

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China Gets Interesting Motorola RAZR Variants, Including One With 720p Display

Popping up at Weibo today are some interesting China-bound Motorola RAZR variants. The first is a device that takes a lot of design cues from the DROID X and X2, though its chassis does differ a beat from those devices. They’re calling it the XT928 and it looks like it has a 13 megapixel shooter, though will be the same as the Motorola RAZR in processor and display and it may even make its way stateside as the DROID X3.

The other one, the MT917, shakes things up a bit. It takes its design cues from the original RAZR, but has a 4.5 inch 720p HD display. I must say I wouldn’t have minded that version of the device on Verizon instead of the original (though the original is no less good). It also has the 13 megapixel camera that the XT928 has. Would any of you be interested in one of these variants instead of the original? [Meibo via Engadget]

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Motorola RAZR gets redesigned for China markets

What do we have here, is this the DROID X3 or just another variant of the newly announced DROID RAZR? We know the DROID RAZR is for the US and Verizon and Motorola was planning just a Motorola RAZR for international markets but here we have a completely redesigned model from the images that were just leaked. Obviously it shares a very similar design with the Kevlar rear and extremely thin 7.1mm body, but clearly things are a bit different here, see for yourself after the break.

Apparently the model shown above has just cleared China’s equivalent of the FCC and will be headed to a few markets across China soon. Shown below is an image of the US model so you can see the difference.

Known as the Motorola MT917 the newly designed model will most likely share the same specs as the recently announced DROID RAZR. With a dual-core processor and the new 4.3″ AMOLED qHD display, 8MP camera on the rear making up that little hump and running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. We’ve been told the DROID RAZR should see ICS very soon in 2012 and would expect the same for this too. From the front it resembles the Motorola Atrix if you ask me and the entire design goes back to the original shape they’ve used in the past instead of what we’ve been seeing from Motorola with tapered edges. Either way we don’t expect to see this outside of China, but was worth a look.
[via UnwiredView]

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Samsung’s dual-screen SCH-W999 bound for China Telecom

While flip phones have largely fallen out of fashion here in the States, especially when it comes to smartphones, the form factor remains popular in many Asian markets. Samsung appears to be capitalizing on that with the new SCH-W999, an Android phone in the classic flip style with a screen on both sides of the top section. Keep it closed and it’s a rather thick slate, open it up and you’ve got access to a full touchscreen and number pad.

The screens have to be shrunk somewhat to fit the frame of course, but at 3.5 inches it still makes for a sizable device. 800 x 480 resolution on an AMOLED panel should make for a pretty solid viewing experience, and hardware nav buttons on the dial pad will make it easy for users to get around Android when the screen is flipped up. A 1.5GHz processor and 5 megapixel camera round out the package.
The SCH-w999 is joined by the more pedestrian SCH-i929, yet another Samsung Galaxy S II variant with a 4.5-inch screen and an 8 megapixel camera. The photos are courtesy of a Chinese standards office, which says that both phones are headed for China Telecom in the near future. Specific Android versions aren’t mentioned, but Gingerbread seems to be a safe bet. There’s no word on pricing or availability yet, not that it’ll matter for most of our western readers – unfortunately, high-powered flip phones don’t seem to make it out of Asia in most cases.
[via Engadget]

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Android Market avaiable in China once again

In the latest in a long line of infighting between the east’s greatest political power and the west’s technology supergiant, the Android Market web site and Android’s native Gmail app went silent on Sunday for most of China. The blackout seems to be over now, and access has been restored for Chinese Android users. No explanation has been given by Chinese authorities.

Chinese Android users don’t have access to an app-based Market like the rest of the world – they’re restricted to a web-based Android Market similar to Android.com. Google’s services are heavily regulated and censored in the authoritarian nation, though not for lack of trying. Hacks into Chinese dissidents’ Gmail accounts by persons unknown (wink) are common, and according to web service Great Firewall of China, the webmail service is still blocked in all of mainland China.
Assuming that the outage was initiated by the Chinese government, there are some very pointed reasons why they’d restrict access to the Android Market. First of all it’s yet another vector for non-sanctioned information to get into the hands of the Chinese public. Nearly all web traffic in China is monitored and censored, and while the Chinese version of the Android Market must conform to these rules as well, there’s nothing stopping the government from simply shutting it down on a whim. Some are speculating that the outage was a political move in response to Google’s support of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who took a “virtual trip” to South Africa with Google’s help this weekend.
Relationships between Google and the Chinese government have been strained (to say the least) for the last 18 months, ever since Google announced a major hack into its servers emanating from China. Google withdrew its search service from the mainland in response to avoid their search results being censored, and now directs Chinese Internet surfers to google.com.hk, where searches are currently not being censored. While Google continues to provide service to Chinese Internet and Android users, it’s tenuous at best – there’s nothing stopping the Chinese government from literally flipping the switch on its services.

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China blocks access to Android Market and Gmail App

China is well known for blocking and censoring anything that the government doesn’t like or thinks will harm the population. China sensors so much content on the web that it has come to be known as the Great Firewall of china. According to reports, China is now censoring access to other things like the Gmail app and the Android Market for Android devices.

Gmail is commonly a target of attack by hackers suspected of living in China. MocoNews reports that right now the Gmail app is blocked in China along with access to the market alone. Apparently, the block has been going on for 36 hours now at mobile and broadband providers around the country.
The Gmail app isn’t working, but Chinese users are reportedly still able to access the Google Gmail accounts online. So far, there has been no official statement on why the blocks are in place. It’s not clear at this point if the blockage is an accident or if it was put in place on purpose.

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China’s HTC Sensation Variant First to Use ST-Ericsson NovaThor SoC

At first glance, the HTC Sensation Z710t doesn’t differ much from the phone first introduced last spring, but underneath the familiar exterior lurks the new ST Ericsson NovaThor SoC. The handset is headed for China Mobile and couples the 1GHz Nova A9500 dual-core application processor with the Thor M6718 mobile for connectivity to the carriers TD-SCDMA network. The pairing is designed for speed on all fronts.
Otherwise, the Sensation remains largely the same with a 4.3-inch qHD display and 8MP camera. Pricing an release date for the handset are currently not available.

Powerful New ST-Ericsson Platform makes Debut in HTC Sensation Z710t
China Mobile’s latest TD smartphone based on state-of-the-art NovaThor™ platform
Geneva, September 26, 2011 – China Mobile and HTC have launched the first smartphone to be based on ST-Ericsson’s powerful new NovaThor platform. The Sensation Z710t offers consumers immersive 3D graphics, fast web browsing, high-definition multimedia and the ability to run several advanced Android applications simultaneously with exceptional performance and battery life.
Underneath the hood of the HTC Sensation Z710t are ST-Ericsson’s Nova™ A9500 dual-core application processor, running at 1GHz, and ST-Ericsson’s Thor™ M6718 modem, which can connect to China Mobile’s extensive TD-SCDMA network, enabling consumers to get online at broadband speeds across much of China. The HTC Sensation Z710t also sports an eight megapixel camera and a 4.3 inch display.
“ST-Ericsson’s new NovaThor platform has enabled us to develop a world-class Android smartphone for China Mobile’s TD network,” said Matthew Costello, Chief Operating Officer of HTC. “Consumers are going to be captivated by the fast and responsive multimedia experience delivered by the HTC Sensation Z710t.”
“The launch of this exceptional HTC smartphone highlights both the capabilities of our NovaThor platform family and our wholehearted support for China Mobile’s drive to bring world-leading smartphones onto its TD network,” said Pascal Langlois, senior vice president, chief sales and marketing officer of ST-Ericsson. “Consumers and Android application developers alike will relish the raw power and 3D graphical capabilities of the HTC Sensation Z710t.”

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XDA China Gives Us Our First Look at HTC Sense 3.5

Yesterday XDA.cn provided us with images of the upcoming HTC Bliss for Verizon, and today they have gone a step further by providing some screen grabs of the new HTC Sense 3.5 build that will ship on the new handset. While much of what will be different in the new version of Sense remains a mystery, it is being reported that it will be capable of running on older devices. Provisions built into Sense 3.0 made a hefty order of running the custom Android UI on devices without the specs to handle it. From the images we can see some updated Sense widgets, new homescreen buttons for the app tray and dialer, and the app launching unlock screen. So far the changes have us pretty interested in this new take on Sense, how about you?
[via DroidLife]

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Apple sued for allegedly swindling customers, selling refurbished iPhones as new in China

Two separate lawsuits have been filed against Apple in China, accusing the tech giant of selling refurbished iPhone smartphones as new devices in multiple Beijing Apple Stores. Lead by well-known consumer rights advocate Wang Hai, two customers have filed formal complaints against Apple in a Beijing court. The suits both allege that Apple Store locations sold refurbished iPhones to the complainants under the guise that they were new devices. Only when the customers discovered that their manufacturer warranties expired less than one year from their respective dates of purchase did they realize something was awry. To make matters worse, Wang says that when one such customer went back to the Apple Store to confront them, the staff there allegedly tried to trick her by modifying her warranty expiration date. ”It’s cheating to sell refurbished products as new ones,” Wang told Global Times in an interview. “It’ll be discrimination against Chinese consumers if the case turns out to be true as refurbished cellphones are also sold in other countries, but at a cheaper price.” Four other consumers in Beijing have come forward to claim they were duped into purchasing refurbished iPhones as new, however no additional lawsuits have been filed at this time. Images supplied by Wang of a customer receipt and a confirmation that the customer’s warranty expired in less than one year follow below.

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