ZTE Joins Microsoft Android Patent Licensees

Randy Cheung, Apr 24, 2013 4:46 PM, 114 views, Got something to say ?,

Last week, Microsoft said that the Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, which makes 40 percent of consumer electronics worldwide including a variety of Android and Chrome-powered products, had agreed to license its patents. Now, the software giant announced another patent-licensing deal with ZTE, the fourth largest telecom producer in the world. ZTE makes a whole lot of Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The licensing agreement with the Chinese handset maker marks a major advance in Microsoft’s quest to extract patent payments from all its competitors making Android phones. With the ZTE deal in place, a full 80 percent of Android phones sold in the US have now taken a license to its patents. Unlike Foxconn, the official announcement regarding ZTE does not explicitly say that Microsoft is getting paid. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company’s patent agreements are “generally royalty-bearing.”

The Return of Alibaba’s Aliyun Operating System to Compete with Android

Star Chang, Apr 19, 2013 3:23 AM, 841 views, 1 Comment »,

AliCloud, the subsidiary of China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba, has staged a comeback by unveiling an upgraded version of its smartphone operating system and a strategic alliance with several local smartphone vendors. Last year, Acer abruptly cancelled a new smartphone launch which the phone was running the Aliyun OS, in response to threats from Google. The search giant said Aliyun OS is a “non-compatible version of Android.” Google expects Acer to build one Android ecosystem — not a incompatible versions. This week, AliCloud launched a slightly revamped version of Aliyun OS in China, and invited telecom operators and software developers to build product or services on top of it. The company promises to share all the possible revenues with all third parties. It will also invest a total of one billion yuan (US$161 million) as income shares to encourage app developers to work on Aliyun platform. Alibaba is pushing its Linux-based mobile operating system to become the “Android of China” and provide another option for smartphone makers …

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China Builds its Own National Operating System Around Ubuntu

Star Chang, Mar 22, 2013 11:55 PM, 476 views, Got something to say ?,

The Chinese government is building an operating system based on the open source OS Ubuntu. The software department of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, announced that Ubuntu would be a new reference architecture for an OS targeted at the Chinese market. Working with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, the authorities plan to release the Ubuntu 13.04-based Kylin desktop OS next month, with plans to extend the Kylin OS to other platforms at a later date. The first release of the Ubuntu Kylin OS will include features and applications that cater for the Chinese market. Features include Chinese input methods and Chinese calendars, a new weather indicator and Chinese music search. Future releases will include integration with Baidu maps and shopping service Taobao, payment processing for Chinese banks, and real-time train and flight information ..

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So Much News in China… #075

Star Chang, Mar 18, 2013 1:11 PM, 505 views, Got something to say ?,

There are so much news from China that passes by that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Here are the Chinese tech news that have left behind because we are just too busy or too lazy to post. There are stories on Chinese hacker, HTC one, WeChat on trouble, surveillance on China’s Skype and so on, check them out after the break. Video for this week: a short film about a window cleaners who keep the Shanghai World Financial Centre sparkling … Hope everyone have a fresh start to your week.

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Knockoff iPhone 5S Debut Before Apple has Even Launched, First 1000 Units Sold Out (Video)

Star Chang, Mar 13, 2013 7:50 PM, 1,718 views, 3 Comments »,

Seeing Chinese Android-based knockoffs of Apple’s products isn’t anything new. Assuming Apple continues its tradition of releasing an “S” variant this year, China Shanzhai manufacturer has an early released of the Goophone i5S before Apple actually launch its original one. It’s visually similar to the current iPhone 5, as Apple’s iPhone 5S could look identical just as the 4S was to the 4. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with a heavily customized skin to make it look like iOS, users can switch between stock Android and the ripoff skin. Under the hood is Mediatek’s 1GHz MT6577 processor with only 512MB of RAM, and it has a 4-inch display with the same aspect ratio as iPhone 5, but resolution only at 854×480 pixel, no Retina display. 8GB on-board storage, 5MP back camera, 1.3MP front camera, fortunately, it doesn’t comes with lightning connector …

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The Chinese Are Upgrading Their Old Feature Phones to Modern Smartphones

Star Chang, Mar 7, 2013 5:11 PM, 476 views, Got something to say ?,

According to statistics by IDC, Seventy-million smartphones were shipped in China in the last quarter of 2012, covering 73.2 percent of the country’s mobile market share. The volume of smartphone shipments saw a 112.1 percent year-on-year increase. The total shipments of mobile phones in China last year reached 362 million, among which smartphones recorded 213 million. We believe the low-cost Android phones, subsidies from phone operators and the arrivals of mobile internet were the driving force behind the boom. Decent enough Android devices at a relatively low price are going to be what turns the tide for smartphones in China. Cheap smartphones are going to make a dent in the China feature phone market. Previously, users in rural China, where access to PCs isn’t widespread, favour the feature phone as a way to get online. But due to the demand of better multimedia and online social networking, cheap smartphones have the opportunity to snatch away yet more market share from feature phones in communist China. And now we can see why the Chinese government is worried about Google having undue influence over the nation’s smartphone landscape.

The First Official Firefox OS Phone Made by ZTE

Star Chang, Feb 25, 2013 2:03 AM, 483 views, 1 Comment »,

Firefox OS is a new smart phone platform for budget phones clearly designed for developing markets. The new ZTE Open is one of the first Firefox phones made by Chinese manufacturer. The new little 3G handset will be powered by the Qualcomm MSM7225A processor (properly less than 1 GHz) alongside 256MB RAM and just 512MB internal storage. It sports a 3.5-inch HVGA TFT display with capacitive touchscreen and connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro-USB. The phone will also come with FM radio and a 3.2-megapixel rear camera and an accelerometer as well as an ambient light sensor. It will carry a 1,200mAh battery. We’re not too sure whether it comes with a microSD card slot, but is almost certainly there given the paltry storage on the phone …

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Chinese No-name Handsets and Knockoff Threaten the Development of Google Android

Star Chang, Jan 25, 2013 3:04 AM, 919 views, Got something to say ?,

There could be trouble on the horizon for Google. Consumers in the world’s biggest mobile phone market appear to be giving up big-name Android handsets for no-name Androids – with Google stripped out. According to the data by Enders analyst, most major handset brands in China have seen their share of data usage fall, at the expense of “Other”, which has doubled its share from around 20 percent to 39 percent of traffic. There are now over 1,000 manufacturers in China selling cheap Android handsets, some of these phones are fake Western brands, but many more are made by tiny manufacturers which not too many people are familiar with. Almost none of these devices have any Google services on them …

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Amazon’s Kindle Store Faces Regulatory Hurdle in China After Its Official Launch

Herman Lai, Dec 17, 2012 7:44 AM, 561 views, Got something to say ?,

Last week, Amazon launched its ebook store in China and began to sell Chinese electronic books via its mobile Kindle application on iOS and Android devices. However, there were reports emerged saying local authorities have started investigating the company’s right to sell e-books in the country, since Amazon does not have a license from publishing authorities for e-book operations.

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HTC Confident of Taking on Apple and Samsung in China with 5-inch Full-HD Phablet (Video)

Star Chang, Dec 6, 2012 6:12 PM, 916 views, 2 Comments »,

Two month ago, Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC announced a new high-end smartphone for Japan market, the HTC J Butterfly (known as HTC Droid DNA in U.S.), and it seems that it is getting ready to release it in China too. HTC plans to take the iPhone 5 head on with this flagship phablet, setting the launch date of the smartphone to earlier than the new Apple smartphone in China, where it is scheduled to be released on Dec. 14. The 5-inch HD smartphone’s specs are said to be better than Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Note II, which is wildly popular in Asia. It is considered a key tool for the Taiwanese company to expand its global market share for the fourth quarter this year, especially for the Chinese market …

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