China represents a huge market opportunity in mobile. China Mobile has more than 500 million subscribers and is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. To put this in context the four biggest US operators (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile) have around 260 million subscribers combined. Operator partnerships are vital in the highly regulated Chinese market and this strategic agreement puts Nokia in a good position compared to some of its competitors.
This announcement has a great deal of potential for Nokia, but also for Nokia's developer partners who want to access the Chinese market. It gives a significant boost to Ovi Store and will help Nokia grow its 'active users' number, which it regards a a key performance indicator. It seems likely that Nokia and China Mobile have a road map of devices that will make use of MM-Ovi Store and we can expect to see further TD-SCDMA handset announcements in due course in addition to the usual Chinese variants of standard Nokia devices.
MM-Ovi Store
MM-Ovi Store sees a joint branding arrangement between China Mobile and Nokia for an application store (we assumed powered by Ovi Store). This joint branding arrangement is the first of its kind for Ovi Store and underlines the seriousness with which Nokia is committing to the Chinese market.
Going forward MM-Ovi Store will be preloaded on all of Nokia's China-variant Symbian handsets. There will be no data charges for browsing or downloading from the store. Currently all the applications in MM-Ovi Store are free, but commercial applications will be added in due course and will be paid for via operator billing.
Mr. Li Yue (China Mobile) and Miss Liang Yumei (Nokia) formally open the MM-Ovi Store
Notably Nokia's Ovi Maps with free navigation will be available for download from the store. This should allow Ovi Maps to reach a much wider customer base in China.
"For Nokia and China Mobile, this is a landmark moment," said Miss Liang Yumei, Senior Vice President Nokia Greater China, Korea and Japan. "It will not only bring bilateral cooperation to a new level, but will also allow an entirely new business model for our development partners and bring more diverse and localised mobile applications content to users in China." [rough translation from Chinese]
"We believe that the introduction of MM-Ovi store will help to create a vibrant ecosystem of mobile applications, giving users a convenient, secure, and personalized service," said Mr. Li Yue, Vice President of China Mobile.
Nokia 6788i
The Nokia 6788i is an updated version of Nokia first TD-SCDMA handset, the Nokia 6788. The key differences include an evolved software bundle (including the addition of MM-Ovi Store), a redesigned control cluster and the availability of extra colour variants. The Nokia 6788i has a design that recalls the Nokia N86, but is "inspired by traditional Chinese furniture and architecture", it incorporates Chinese design elements including traditional Chinese patterns on the back of the slide and the battery cover. The Nokia 6788i is expected to become available in April.
TD-SCDMA is China Mobile's version of 3G, which has been developed domestically and which is currently being rolled out across the China Mobile network.
Nokia 6788i (on the left) compared to the Nokia 6788 (on the right)
Key hardware features of Nokia 6788i
- 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics
- Integrated A-GPS
- 4GB of internal memory and microSD card slot
- 3.5mm Nokia AV port, FM Radio and Internet radio
- Runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian (S60 3.2.2)
- Dimensions of 105.6 x 54.9 x 18.9 mm (92cc) and 158 g weight
- 2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320) screen
- TD-SCDMA (2010 and 2025) connectivity with triband GSM (900, 1800, 1900), Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
- BL-6F battery (1200mAh)
Further specifications are available on the Nokia 6788i's Forum Nokia page.