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TD-SCDMA posts

Nokia's first TD-SCDMA-based 6788 ready for China Mobile's 500 million subscribers

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 27th 2009 @ 6:26AM

Nokia might be hemorrhaging smartphone marketshare to North America's meddling upstarts but it still dominates in total handsets sold worldwide. Today's news can only help that cause as Nokia taps into China's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G marketplace for the first time. The Nokia 6788 does the honor via collaboration with China Mobile, China's (and the world's) largest mobile phone operator. The handset itself brings a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, 4GB of memory plus microSD expansion, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, all riding atop S60 3rd Edition -- not 5th as we're accustomed to seeing by now. Unfortunately, it won't start contributing to Nokia's sagging bottom-line until the end of December.

Confirmed: HTC Qilin uses OMAP3 -- out of necessity

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 27th 2009 @ 12:40PM

HTC's got a super-tight relationship with Qualcomm, a relationship that they've gone to the mat to defend on many occasions -- most recently with the Hero, which uses essentially the same 528MHz MSM7201a chipset as pretty much every other notable HTC in recent memory. Thing is, this is 2009 and there now are better, faster processors out there, even within the ARM family; take TI's Cortex A8-based OMAP3, for example, which very effectively powers some of the most media-centric, UI eye candy-heavy devices on the market. That's not to say that the MSM7200 series can't hold its own -- one look at TouchFLO 3D gliding along smoothly on a Touch Pro2 will tell you that -- but why not throw more horsepower under the hood if you can still get a full days' worth of use on battery power? We've been able to confirm a wmpoweruser.com report that HTC's upcoming Qilin for China Mobile will be underpinned by an honest-to-goodness OMAP3, which you'd think might rock the Qualcomm boat but HTC's decision was actually very easy: the fully-integrated MSM7200 isn't available in a TD-SCDMA configuration. That's good for Qilin, good for China Mobile, bad for customers of every other Whitestone variant in the world. If there's a silver lining here, it's that HTC's leaked roadmaps seem to indicate that Snapdragon-powered gear will happen sooner rather than later, but at this point, it can't happen soon enough.

Lenovo's Android-powered O1 'OPhone' due next month

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Aug 7th 2009 @ 3:03PM

Good news, kids! It looks like Lenovo's O1 "OPhone" handset is finally ready to hit the shelves over on the Mainland sometime next month. Truth be told, the story arc of this Android-powered 3G (TD-SCDMA) handset has been quite the emotional roller coaster: Some were riveted by the sleek, sexy physical design of the thing, while others were repelled by its intensely KIRFish UI. China Mobile is obviously hoping for big things from the little guy -- and getting it into stores before Unicom gets the iPhone sorted can't hurt. Either way, it looks like someone's just taken a bite out of iOrgane's market share!

HTC Hero and Click coming to China under Dopod brand

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 3rd 2009 @ 1:36PM

HTC has been on a global Android-pimping mission with its Hero device, and it looks like Chinese subsidiary Dopod gets the honor of announcing three new handsets for the Middle Kingdom. Unlike others, the Hero retains its WiFi capabilities by playing nice with China's custom WLAN security protocol and is expected in late August on China Unicom for 5,600 Yuan ($820) along with the few-frills Click for 3,400 Yuan ($500). The carrier has opted to strip Google Maps from the Hero (though it's still downloadable), and to soften the blow it will likely offer a snazzy red version of the phone. China Mobile will have to settle for an as-yet unspecified TD-SCDMA handset and the already announced Magic, both of which will likely be sporting the OMS flavor of Android. We're not sure we'd classify the Hero's price tag as reasonable -- but really, can you put a dollar figure on being the first big-name Android release in the world's largest wireless market?

Samsung touts that it has 3G covered like a blanket in China

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 31st 2009 @ 10:40AM

Though it stands as the world's most populous wireless market (by a stunningly wide margin), China lags in 3G coverage --partly thanks to its fragmentation-happy attitude that has left the country with three very different, very incompatible standards that are all being rolled out in parallel. Of course, when you're Samsung, that ain't no thing. Sammy -- the world's number two manufacturer, and a company that very nearly rolls out a phone a day every single day of the year -- is spearheading a new "3GSamsung, 3G for all" marketing campaign in China to advertise the breadth and depth high-speed wares. To be fair, the company is probably more qualified to aggressively advertise 3G support in China than any other company, seeing how it's in the process of rolling out around 30 compatible phones there spanning the full range from EV-DO to HSPA to China's own TD-SCDMA -- now they've just got to work on bumping up those adoption rates and they'll be in business.

[Image via 163]

China Mobile's 7-inch Android slate gets rendered

by Darren Murph posted Jul 31st 2009 @ 6:49AM

We've nothing much to go on outside of a few good renders and a smattering of machine translated paragraphs, but it sure sounds as if China Mobile is entertaining the idea of bringing a 7-inch Android-based tablet to its airwaves. As the story goes, said slate would boast China's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G connectivity, support for video calling, a full-fledged web browser and an OPhone operating system -- which is essentially a customized version of Android for the Chinese market. Sadly, no further information was given, leaving us to wonder what kind of innards are scheduled for implant and what kind of price tag / release date we're looking at. Oh, and those "call" and "end call" buttons are pretty darn evident, leading us to believe that China Mobile might actually expect you to use this as your primary mobile. Can you say... Sidetalkin'?

[Via Pocketables]

Continue reading China Mobile's 7-inch Android slate gets rendered

China Mobile says 3G isn't winning hearts and minds yet

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 29th 2009 @ 9:42PM

China Mobile officially kicked off commercial 3G services on China's homegrown TD-SCDMA standard way back in January of this year and it's sparing no expense to build it out, but so far, only 3 percent of new subscribers -- that is, those that could easily get a 3G line and hardware if they wanted to -- are opting for the service. It'd be totally cool if 3 percent of China Mobile's total subscriber base were on 3G, but in reality, only about three-quarters of a million folks were signed up by the end of May -- and when you consider that there are nearly half a billion subscribers on the carrier, that's a drop in the bucket. Part of the problem could simply be that TD-SCDMA is unique to China, which limits hardware selection; its competitors are deploying HSPA and EV-DO networks, which may have a better chance of broad acceptance. Either that, or Chinese just hate fast wireless, and we're doubting that.

Meizu releasing upgraded M8 versions with 3G and big cams?

by Chris Ziegler posted May 14th 2009 @ 5:09PM

As decent as the M8's software might be, the one consensus area where everyone's favorite iPhone rip is clearly lacking is in the radio silicon; the current model's strictly 2G, and what's worse, the shipping units frequently come without WiFi. What's a Meizu fan to do? The company's ever-colorful CEO Jack Wong is now saying that there are a couple new versions of the M8 in the works -- which may launch in place of the previously-mentioned M9 variants -- and should include both GPS and a healthy 5 megapixel cam. An "M8 3G" would be rocking TD-SCDMA for domestic Chinese high-speed service, while a second "M8w" model would do some form of WCDMA, presumably equipped for 3G service both in and out of the country. No release dates are mentioned -- but considering the M8's seemingly perpetual delay, we wouldn't hold our breath for a 2009 outing.

[Via Meizu Me, thanks nice2know]

Motorola ZN300 gets unofficially official, is surprisingly nice

by Sean Cooper posted Mar 3rd 2009 @ 10:27AM

First in the "we're surprised they did it" category today is Motorola's ZN300, a handset that doesn't look even a little like a RAZR. We knew you could do it Moto, and congrats on what seems at first glance to be a pleasant departure form the rehashes we've seen so much of lately. The ZN300 is a slider set with quad-band GSM, CDMA, and TD-SCDMA, which makes this set a shoe-in for China mobile. Other notables include 8 MB (hopefully a typo for 8GB) of built in memory that can expand to 32GB, 3 megapixel camera with 8X zoom, Bluetooth, and styling that finally may make some people take notice. Sure this handset may not deserve a ZOMG!, but hey, we're happy to see something, anything, new from these folks. Look for it to launch this quarter; follow on for a wee gallery.

[Via UnwiredView]

Gallery: Motorola ZN300 gets unofficially official, is surprisingly nice

Meizu looking to CDMA and China-centric 3G with M8 successor

by Chris Ziegler posted Mar 3rd 2009 @ 12:42AM

We've barely had time to digest the fact that real, actual, honest-to-goodness Meizu M8s are now available at the odd retail outlet around the globe, and Meizu's famously colorful CEO is already spouting off about a successor. Talk about a buzzkill, eh? Jack Wong made an off-the-cuff remark in a forum post today about the M9 in two flavors -- M9c for CDMA networks and M9t for China's 3G TD-SCDMA networks -- but beyond that, he's said nothing about specs or availability. Odds are, we can expect a good 18-24 months of teasers, missed launches, and brushes with vaporware status before either model actually launches, so if you had your heart set on an M8, seriously, don't feel bad about taking the plunge.

[Via Meizu Me]

Sony Ericsson mulling production of TD-SCDMA handsets?

by Darren Murph posted Feb 12th 2009 @ 5:37AM

Take this one for what it's worth (which ain't much at the moment), but DigiTimes has it that Sony Ericsson is considering producing TD-SCDMA handsets for entry into Chinese markets. Granted, you can already find yourself a few SE knockoffs in that section of the globe, but we're guessing the company is looking to actually profit off of the phones sold in the aforementioned nation. We're told that Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, has indicated that T3G Technology could be tapped to provide the TD-SCDMA solutions, and given that China will soon have gobs of 3G capabilities, the timing here makes sense. Potentially more interesting would be SE's choice of handset for the Chinese market -- will we finally see the company work some low-end magic now that the economy is strained? Give it a shot, SE, it's not like you've really got anything else left to lose.

[Via CellPassion]

China Mobile blowing $8.6B to build out 3G network

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 14th 2009 @ 2:41AM

Building a wireless network is never cheap -- but when you take into account the fact that you have to cover a huge landmass that's home to well over a billion souls... well, you get the picture. China Mobile has announced that it intends to sink some 58.8 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) this year alone into building out its TD-SCDMA-based 3G network to cover 238 cities across China with roughly 60,000 base stations. In the 3G race, they'll be going up against China Unicom and China Telecom who'll be operating more world-friendly WCDMA and EV-DO networks, which raises an interesting question: will TD-SCDMA equipment be cheaper thanks to royalty loopholes, or more expensive because there's no global scale of economy?

[Via mocoNews]

Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone to hit China Mobile this quarter

by Darren Murph posted Jan 9th 2009 @ 4:18PM

Look out, China -- Lenovo's all-too-sexy OPhone is about to land in the hands of unsuspecting China Mobile subscribers, or so says Reuters, anyway. The planet's largest mobile carrier will reportedly launch the 3G handset sometime this quarter, though some reports are suggesting that development is being hampered as engineers struggle with creating a Chinese language version of the OS. Once launched, it will go down as the first Android-powered handset to operate on China's home-cooked TD-SCDMA 3G network, but there's no word on just how costly it'll be. Not like cost is really a concern here, right?

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of modmyGphone]

China finally awards 3G licenses, winners no surprise

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 7th 2009 @ 12:29PM

If you thought Vodafone or Telefonica would somehow emerge as a big winner in China's 3G spectrum launch... well, yeah, think again. China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have now been armed with licenses for TD-SCDMA, WCDMA (UMTS and HSPA that is), and CDMA2000 / EV-DO, respectively, meaning the world's largest carrier will be rolling out China's homegrown 3G standard -- not to say Unicom's or Telecom's footprints will be anything to sneeze at, either. In fact, in the long term, it's suggested that Unicom and Telecom will actually be able to grow faster since they're using standards that other countries have actually heard of, but for the next few years, Mobile's still the safe bet if you absolutely, positively must have the most insane Chinese coverage available.

[Via mocoNews]

Nokia says "yes" to TD-SCDMA, has S60 phone in the works

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 19th 2008 @ 9:28AM

By all accounts, China will eventually end up with LTE along with the rest of the world -- thank goodness -- but in the meantime, there's a hodgepodge of 3G techs brewing in the Far East including a healthy dose of the country's homegrown TD-SCDMA "standard." Not to worry though, denizens of the world's most populous country; turns out you won't be stuck with domestic handsets and the occasional Samsung or Motorola to get your high-speed fill. Nokia has mentioned at Macau's Mobile Asia Congress this week that it has a strong commitment to TD-SCDMA (and with a market that big, it's pretty hard to ignore) -- but what's more, they're hard at work on an S60-based smartphone for TD-SCDMA that will see launch by the end of 2009. With that kind of talk, the Sprints, Verizons, Bells, and Teluses of the world have to be screaming bloody murder that they can't bother to do the same for good, old-fashioned, well-established CDMA -- but then again, the North American market is still a little bit of a mystery to Nokia, isn't it?