oPhone vs. iPhone - my views
Senior Apple staff are to visit China to get into top level negotiations with China Unicom, the second largest telecommunications operator in China. They will discuss the launch strategy for the iPhone in China, a source told Sina.com.
China Mobile (the largest Chinese telecommunications operator) has officially announced a customized interface OMS (Open Mobile System), which is Android-based. As we all know, the mobile web is not like the World Wide Web. Not every device can run on every mobile network; not every mobile app can operate on every mobile device that is connected to the mobile web. Google did a good thing with Android, which is going to be a big success. They’ve got the right approach to the market, they are open in every way possible. To add to this current dynamic, Lenovo, which is China’s number one mobile phone vendor, is going to launch the oPhone (the 1st OMS mobile) and are now accelerating its time-to-market. According to one mobile phone assessment report, the Lenovo oPhone has good performance and looks well designed. However, as this report says, the OMS still has the same large number of residual defects as the Android system. And its weak third-party software support is an another shortcoming as well.
Overall, though, the oPhone is on eye-level with the iPhone and is not to be underestimated. They are following a different application distribution model, which also shows why Apple and China Mobile have so far not warmed to each other: oPhone apps are embedded with many services from China Mobile, such as Fetion, newsletter, phone mail, etc. Some people think that even when the iPhone enters the Chinese market, it’s still doubtful that the apps of the App Store will become popular among Chinese users. The iPhone is hugely popular in the US and Europe because Apple has many loyal fans there and it has been able to extend the success of iTunes to the launch of the App Store. China Mobile knows this model and it will focus on the localization of design and promotion as much as possible when they promote the oPhone. It is to launch the Mobile Market in August, which had already provided 582 games, 178 mobile theme, and 344 apps up to July 3rd. Whether Mobile Market can be equally as successful as the App Store or not still depends on China Mobile’s operational and organizational abilities.
Some people may think that the oPhone will even kill the iPhone, but I do not share this view. The iPhone is not an ordinary mobile, so its launch will have some deep influence in the 3G market of China. That’s why both China Mobile and China Unicom are thinking a great deal about the iPhone’s launch in China. I believe competition will be increasing in the 3G market day by day. For a large number of Chinese mobile users, this is actually not bad news.
