China Mobile and HTC in deal for smartphones
24 Aug 2009
Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) and China Mobile have entered into a deal to make smartphones to meet China's growing demand for telecom products and services.
Wang Jianzhou, chairman, China Mobile, has said that the company plans to invest 47 million yuan ($6.9 million) in the venture that may produce around seven new models by next year.
As part of the deal, HTC will provide design and will make the models, while China Mobile will take care of customer support and service.
The new smarphones from China Mobile have been branded as OPhone, a take on Apple's iPhone. The new models developed will be based on China Mobile's Open Mobile System.
China Mobile has been using HTC models on its 2G network for some time, and the newly produced models will run on the 3G network.
China is well known as the largest market for mobile phones and China Mobile is trying to break into the still developing 3G market with the new products.
