By Herman Lai, posted Mar 28, 2012 at 6:18 AM, 542 views,

Nokia brings Windows Phone to China with 100,000 Free Apps (Videos)

Nokia is finally announcing the Lumia phones in China today! The event held in Beijing at a historical place called Yong Ding Men (永定門). What a good news for the folks in China! They have been waiting for almost half a year since the Finnish phone maker announced Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 in London back in September 2011. So let’s see what Nokia brings to China after the jump…

The Launch

Gallery: Nokia’s Lumia 800

As expected, Nokia brought us four Lumia phones — Lumia 800, Lumia 610, Lumia 900 and Lumia 710. The first CDMA Lumia phone for China is Lumia 800c, which will be available on March 31st. It can be purchased through China Telecom online store, Gome and some other local sales channels. With Lumia 610c, it will probably release in the second quarter of the year. If you have stayed tune on previous rumor about the Windows Phone in China, then you should notice there’s a missing model that Nokia did not mentioned in the press — Lumia 719c. We have no information in regards of this model yet.

The chairman of China Telecom, Wang Xiaochu, said they had surpassed the U.S. carrier Verizon as the biggest CDMA 3G network carrier in the world. Reportedly, China Telecom will have 30 days to sell the Lumia phones before the Nokia stores do. Here’s a good news! During the press conference, Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop announced they will set the final price of the Lumia 800c at 3,599 yuan ($580), which is even cheaper than what the rumor said previously.

Customized Metro-UI

We are glad to see Nokia has carefully customized the series of Lumia phones for Chinese users. The company integrated lots of Chinese medias like Sina Weibo, Renren, Sohu News, Baidu, Youku and so forth. The best part? Nokia said its Metro UI allows users to turn someone’s Weibo page or Renren page as a shortcut that set on the home menu of the Metro UI. It seems particularly friendly and convenient to most of the Chinese users. In addition, Xbox Live is accessible on the Lumia phone as well.

Marketplace Unblocked

As most of you should aware of Google’s Android market had already been confronted with a huge censorship and restrictions of the Chinese government, therefore there’re only third-party Android markets available in China. WP7 marketplace was also suspected to be blocked by the government previously. However, toward the end of the conference, Nokia’s Simon Leung has proudly declared Marketplace is accessible in China now! And, Windows Phone Marketplace will provide 100,000 downloads of Fruit Ninija and Plants & Zombies for free. Nokia will also offer a program called “Be Top” to encourage local app developers to make quality software for the platform with rewards.

Source: WPdang, Dgtle