China Mobile launches new operating system

By Li Qiaoyi

China Mobile rolled out its mobile operating platform yesterday – the OPhone OS – the first such system developed by a telecom company.

The OPhone operating system, based on Google's Android, could reduce the amount of time used to develop fully customized services and improve the user experience.

Many see the OPhone OS as China's Mobile's answer to China Unicom's recently announced deal to sell Apple's iPhones in China starting in the fourth quarter.

Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile, the country's largest telecom operator in terms of the number of subscribers, said the new system "provides an open and high-performance software platform for mobile equipment and chip manufacturing."

Manufacturers such as Lenovo, LG, Dopod, Dell and Sang Fei, a Philips joint venture company, have already launched handsets based on OPhone technology.

Additionally, more than 10 mobile manufacturers including Motorola, Samsung and ZTE are developing phones based on OPhone OS, the company said on its website.

Chip manufacturers, including Marvell, Spreadtrum and T3G have also released chip solutions for mobile equipment manufacturers.

The development of the OPhone will foster the TD-SCDMA, a Chinese 3G service, Wang also said.

China Mobile has launched 3G network services in 38 cities based on TD-SCDMA up to now, and the network will cover 200 more cities by the end of the year, according to Wang.

OPhone handsets that support TD-SCDMA, China-developed 3G standard, will also be released within the year.

China Unicom recently announced that it reached an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone.

China Unicom spent 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) on 5 million iPhones based on WCDMA, China Business News reported.

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