On the heels of China Telecom's and China Unicom's decisions to launch mobile phones priced around 1,000 RMB (US$149.3; US$1 = 6.7 RMB), Chinese telecom operator China Mobile recently announced that the company and Chinese telecom equipment supplier ZTE are poised to jointly launch Android-powered Smartphones priced around 1,000 RMB (US$149.3) and 30 versions of Ophones, which runs on OMS (Open Mobile System) platform developed by China Mobile based on Google's Android OS, the chinabyte.com reported on December 14. ZTE, Huawei, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Coolpad, LG, Dell, TCL, Philips, Hisense, Lenovo, Asus and Acer will supply 30 versions of Ophones to China Mobile in 2011, according to the same source. Meanwhile, with markets for feature phones near saturation, MIC predicts that Smartphones' share is expected to approach 30% in 2011. As over 50% of mobile phone users are willing to purchase low-priced Smartphones, three Chinese telecom operators all have devoted themselves in launching low-priced Smartphones. Aside from China Mobile-ZTE collaboration, China Telecom already teamed up with ZTE and launched a low-priced Android Smartphones with a price tag of 990 RMB (US$147.8).

Moreover, at the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference held in Beijing on December 15, China Mobile collaborated with several companies in the development of Wi-Mo (Wireless Mobile Multimedia Transmitting), a new wireless multimedia transmission technology, the Sohu News reported on December 14. 12 companies partnered with China Mobile include Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Datang Telecom, Lenovo, Taiwanese Asus, Korean Samsung, Chinese Haier, CMMB and baseband chipmaker Innofidei, mobile sensor maker CyWee, HD chipmaker Silicon Image, Marvell, Broadcom, and Atheros, according to the same source. China Mobile Research Institute stated that the new Wi-Mo technology will support wireless, instantaneous, HD multimedia transmissions between mobile terminals and larger-screen devices, allowing users to synchronize video content stored in their mobile phones with TVs and other large-screen devices through Wi-Fi (Wireless-Fidelity) connection. Leveraging such technology, users can play mobile games on their TVs and the Wi-Mo technology will support multi-screen sharing and interaction with other mobile devices, whereby allow other people to join in the game. In addition, China Mobile will team up with other partners to develop multimedia applications based on Wi-Mo technology, according again to Sohu News.

Furthermore, in order to upgrade its OMS platform, China Mobile recently also announced that the company will establish an innovation alliance, whereby will help the company evolve its OMS platform. Further details, however, were not yet disclosed. In the beginning of the year, China Mobile developed approximately 600 applications for Ophones and is expected to continue develop more applications in order to catch up with Apple's App Store, which currently features more than 300,000 applications.