China Mobile will be releasing a 3G Android-based handset in the first quarter of 2009, Reuters reports. A “source with direct knowledge of the issue” said the the phone, named Ophone, would be manufactured by Lenovo Mobile, which if true would confirm a rumor we came across in December. The phone will run on China Mobile’s homegrown TD-SCDMA network which has struggled to gain traction with few handsets available.
The first 3G licenses were recently handed out in China. China Mobile will utilize its TD-SCDMA network, while competitors China Unicom and China Telecom will use Europe’s WCDMA and North America’s CDMA 2000 standards, respectively.
