Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has implemented the Google Android operating system in a new mobile phone that they are launching in China and Brazil. China Mobile and Claro will be selling the Dell Mini 3 very soon. The Dell Mini 3 is the company’s first smartphone and the specs are mum for now.
LG Electronics will soon be releasing the LG GW880 on China Mobile. The phone will be powered by the OPhone OS. OPhone OS is based on the Google Android operating system.
The OPhone has an interface like the iPhone and there is an application store called the Mobile Market for the phone. The OPhone SDK is compatible with the Android SDK.
The LG GW880 works with a 3G connection and TD-SCDMA/EDGE. The LG GW880 also has a 3.5″ touch screen, WVGA resolution, GPS, Bluetooth, 5 megapixel camera, 512 MB ROM/256MB RAM.
Within the next couple of days, Dell will be launching a mobile phone. The phone will be powered by the Google Android operating system. Since the operating system is open source, this will save the Chinese customers some money. The news about an Android-powered Dell phone has been rumored since April.
The provider of the phone service will be China Mobile. And the phone is expected to be called the Ophone mini3i. Given the word mini is in the name, I have a strong belief that the phone will be miniature.
Rumor has it that Dell is also working with Google Android on a tablet PC. But there is another rumor that Dell is working on their own proprietary operating system while partnering with software company Red Office.
The Dell Ophone mini3i phone is expected to operate similarly to the iPhone. The phone will have a touchscreen and will not have a physical keyboard. Lenovo and Dopod are also expected to launch Ophones of their own in the next several days. All Ophones will have TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). This means the phone will not work outside of China, unless hacked of course.
Vodafone is planning to release a set of APIs that will give developers the opportunity to build applications with capabilities to directly charge consumers for micro-payments and has the ability to detect location. Developers will be able to reach Vodafone’s 289 million customers through the selling of games and other applications.
Vodafone will allow developers to use direct billing capabilities for customers to pay for application services wirelessly through pre- and post-paid accounts.
Another fortunate opportunity for developers through Vodafone is access to the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) SDK. The JIL is a partnership between Softbank Corporation, Vodafone, and China Mobile Limited. This will allow developers to create widgets for a total customer base of up to one billion consumers. JIL will be launching a formal website and the SDK this summer.
Amit Chowdhry | April 22, 2009 | 206 views | Comments Categorized under China Mobile
Fresh from the talks of the potential to make Dell smartphones, China Mobile has released some very impressive numbers regarding their mobile subscribers. Although the revenue per user is falling, China Mobile users are downloading more music, making lots of calls, and texting each other a lot more now than ever.
On China Mobile, over 174.2 billion SMS messages were sent during January 1 through March 31. The carrier also has 384 million users on their wireless music service. The reason why the company is losing more money per user is because they introduced more economical phone plans.
However this year the country started adding 3G networks which will make it easier to sell more value-added services just like AT&T is capitalizing on right now with the iPhone 3G.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) is in talks with China Mobile Limited over bringing smartphones made by the computer company and powered by Google’s mobile operating system Android to the most populated country in the world. Zhang Jun, an analyst with Wedge MKI said that the level of talks between Dell and China Mobile are very serious. Dell wants to release two phones in China by the end of the year.
This move would be beneficial for Google, Dell, and China Mobile together. Dell could penetrate a market that is largely untapped because the Apple iPhone is not available in China. And Research In Motion does not have a lot of BlackBerry models selling in China either. Google’s operating system will garner a lot of extra attention and China Mobile would have more choices of smartphones to sell. Apple was previously in talks with China Mobile but an agreement fell through.
Peter Sabilla, an adjunct professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University runs a blog called shmula.com. On that blog, I found an interesting article that has a high-level map of the Apple iPhone supply chain.
Many of the iPhone components are built in Shenzhen, China and in Taiwan. Below is the high-level image:
So the materials built for the iPhone by the suppliers and sub-tier suppliers are relatively cheap. The reason why Apple is a large company today is because of the profit margins made by products like the Mac, iPhone, and iPod in the U.S.
In order to make even more money, the iPhone needs to go global but must be affordable to make sales in other countries. This is why the rumor that China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE:CHL) subsidizing the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) the iPhone makes sense. Many of the components that are being built for the iPhone is already being done overseas already.
According to the JLM Pacific Epoch, “The would-be mobile partners are nearing the end of talks that aim to
avoid passing on the relatively high price of iPhones to Chinese consumers by having Mobile subsidize the phones, said the insider.” The source of the news is a China Mobile insider.
