By Chris Chang, posted Apr 20, 2011 at 12:58 PM, 1,938 views,

Meizu Expanding to California, Next Generation iPhone Killer In Production?

Here are two big news for Meizu fanyboys. First, the mighty M9 Android smartphone is getting an upgrade, and instead of naming its successor as M9II, Meizu CEO Jack Wong decided to call it as MX. Sounds pretty cool, and it will be coming with HDMI-out by year’s end! Next, Meizu plans to expand into the US, opening a California office and offer product support to their international customers. Great!

The above pic is posted by Jack Wong and he confirmed that a 16GB model will be released by the end of the year probably for ¥3,580 ($548). Features? It will include a 4-inch screen with 960×640 resolution, 1GB RAM and ROM, a Cortex-A9 dual-core processor all packed in 63.5 x 119 x 9.5 mm shell. What’s more, HDMI and coaxial digital audio outputs will be present on the MX, it will support HSPA+ broadband with 21 Mbit/s and it will have a 8 megapixel back illuminated CMOS sensor with flash. For its appearance, the back side of the phone is white and touch buttons have undergone some changes, according to the mock-up pic. We know that the M9 costs only ¥2,699 ($413) for its 16GB model, so why am I going to spend more than that for the new version? Well, it’s better than M9…

So, what an interesting move for Meizu to head to the States. In a forum posting, Wong compares this move to the flying house seen in the Pixar movie Up, meaning that Meizu products will be more readily available in international markets outside of China, and there will be a campus in California. Well, we all know that it’s going to be difficult for Meizu to sell their products internationally given their unfamiliar branding. If they want to be successful like Apple, then they really need to step up the quality of their ‘innovative’ products so they don’t risk giving a bad first impression, as a knockoff. Anyway, we really can’t wait to see a Meizu store in USA!

UPDATE: Jack Wong is just joking about the plan to move to the US, it was a joke reply to a snarky comment in his forum posting. Our fault to treat it seriously! (thanks Richard!)

Source: Meizu BBS (1), (2) via Meizu Me (1), (2)