The great thing about an open operating system like Android is that anyone can use it. After rejecting closed-off Apple’s iPhone in China due to a fallout over profit sharing, China Mobile has decided to grab Lenovo’s Android-based Ophone instead. Lenovo must have been paying attention to the iPhone battle because the Ophone, on the outside at least, is basically a clone. It has the same form factor and looks to have a touch interface too, though no specifications have been detailed yet.
Says a forum post at modmyGphone, the original source of the leak:
“OPhone is a codename for phones that will be based on China Mobile’s OMS(Open Mobile System) which is essentially Android + TD SCDMA (China’s home-grown 3G standard).”
Elsewhere in the post it also says that the Open Mobile System is something China Mobile began working on after realizing that without having its own operating system it was at risk from other wireless providers in the country. By building a proprietary OS based on Android, China Mobile will be in better position to negotiate profit sharing with handset manufacturers. It is also rumored that China Mobile is considering manufacturing its own handsets.
The Ophone will likely be released sometime in 2009, but it’s not the only confirmed Android-based phone on the release slate. Kogan Technologies, Motorola, OpenMoko, Huawei, HTC, and Sony Ericsson are all working on their own Android-based phones. We reported that Sony Ericsson was working on a summer 2009 release date for its first Android phone, but the company has since denied they have set any specific release dates.
