China to get Android-based HTC ‘OPhone’
HTC will from next month start selling Android-powered smartphones in China, the world’s largest wireless market, under the OPhone name. The HTC OPhone will be a version of the HTC Magic which is the successor to the T-Mobile G, also knows as the HTC Dream.
China Mobile will release the phones with custom software and called OPhones, which refers to Open Mobile System, which China Mobile has named its own version of Google’s Android operating system, so rest assured the OPhone is not a nameplay on the Apple iPhone.
China Mobile has almost half a billion customers and could well have exclusivity and thus be the only provider offering the phone. HTC sold 800,000 handsets in China last year and are looking at doubling that figure this year.
The release price for the OPhone handset will end up at about $730 (about 5,000 yuan).
