BEIJING, China – It’s arrived. The world’s largest and fastest-growing mobile market now has a truly great smartphone. The Nokia Lumia has launched with China Telecom in a ceremony held at the Yongdingmen Gate – the oldest, and most important, entrance to the city of Beijing. 

Nokia has a long tradition of providing Chinese users with all of the local functions and services they need, and the Nokia 800C has been tailored with exclusive apps and services for the Chinese market.  

Announcing the launch, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said:

“We’re excited to introduce our first Lumia smartphone, the Nokia 800C, to this important market with our exclusive launch partner, China Telecom. Working closely together, we’ve created a compelling, locally relevant experience on the Nokia 800C especially tailored for people in China”.  

The Nokia 800C is the first CDMA Windows Phone in China, featuring Windows Phone 7.5, and operated on the country’s most extensive and reliable 3G network.

Nokia offers Lumia users in China access to major Internet services including Sina, SOHU, Tencent and Renren.  

Wang Xiaochu, Chairman of China Telecom, said the launch represented “Optimism and excitement for the future of Windows Phone and Nokia Lumia in China.”

China Telecom’s mobile market in China is bigger than Verizon in the U.S. – and, according to research by Strategy Analytics, over 32 million smartphones were sold in China in the last quarter. We estimate that’s a massive rate of four smartphones per second.

This promises to be only the start of the Nokia Lumia experience in China, with the launch later in Q2 of the Nokia 610C, aimed at younger users.

A global phone with a uniquely local experience:

The Nokia 800C has the same head-turning design, eye catching Windows Phone user interface – and great Nokia services that has made the Lumia the must-have smartphone of 2012.     

Nokia experiences, including Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, and Nokia Music have been optimized for Windows Phone – and are only available on the Nokia Lumia: 

• Nokia Maps, provides easy-access, three-dimensional maps of China, and over 190 countries, as well as local content from Fantong, Jiepang, Ctrip, Qunar and Soufun.

• Nokia Drive, brings free, voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation to China, and also comes with offline navigation.

• Nokia Music brings a single music hub with unlimited free music for 12 months in mainland China.  It also includes MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of local and international music.

 

The Nokia 800C also has exclusive applications and services, just for China:

With the Nokia Lumia in China you can download more than 20,000 apps from the Marketplace – and get integrated music, games, cartoon, video and reading apps right on the Nokia Lumia 800C home screen.

 

As from today in the Marketplace, Nokia Lumia smartphones in China will also have access to magazine applications  from Trends,which will launch Cosmopolitan first for Nokia Lumia smartphones and provide Nokia Lumia consumers free access to FHM, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire.

For  people using a Nokia Lumia smartphone in China, Nokia will soon offer 100,000 free downloads of the hit gaming titles Fruit Ninja and PVZ through the Nokia Collection in Marketplace.

Every journey starts with a single step: 

Nokia and Microsoft also announced the ‘Be Top’ program, which is designed to encourage and support developers in creating great new applications on Windows Phone specifically for people in China.

The Nokia 800C is about more than a smartphone, it’s about building an exciting new ecosystem in China – and today was the first step in that journey.

The Nokia 800C will be available in China in black and cyan in early April.

Here’s how our colleagues on the Windows Phone blog reported the story.