ZTE sees a windfall from China Telecom

SHANGHAI, CHINA: China Telecom, the smallest of China's three wireless carriers, has ordered 300,000 smartphones based on Google's free Android system, its largest such order to date as it banks on cheap smartphones to ramp up its fledgling 3G service.

ZTE Corp's entry model smartphone N600 will constitute 80 per cent of those handsets, ZTE said in a statement on Sunday.

China Telecom will price ZTE's N600 at an inexpensive 1,000 yuan ($148.9) per handset.

China, the world's largest mobile market with almost 800 million subscribers, is a hotbed of growth for smartphones running Android, a free operating system that allows developers to keep down prices.

With its open platform developed by Google, Android has enticed technology giants such as Dell Inc, Lenovo and Huawei to develop smartphones for the price-conscious Chinese market.

By contrast, Apple's iPhone is considered expensive for the Chinese market by analysts. The Cupertino firm also said on Monday that it will be launching the iPhone 4 in China this Saturday.

The phone will be sold at its Apple retail stores and through its sole telecom distributor China Unicom.