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China here we come.
HTC announced Wednesday that they’ve started selling the first Windows Phone in the country. The HTC Eternity (codename) is an unlocked or “open market” handset with a 4.7-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, and comes stocked with a slew of popular Chinese apps. It’s also the first of many great Windows Phone handsets headed for China from Nokia and other phone makers this year. So stay tuned.
To mark the arrival of Windows Phone, Microsoft China held an event in Beijing for press and phone industry executives Wednesday to show off the Chinese-language interface. If you’re curious, here are a few shots (shown in a generic handset) providing a taste of Windows Phone in simplified Chinese. The software also supports traditional Chinese.
Our engineering and design teams really sweated the details, working hard to create a version of the software that both showcases the inherent beauty of Chinese characters and excites Chinese customers. We can’t wait until they get their hands on it. What do you think?
UPDATE: There’s been a little confusion about the name of HTC’s new Windows Phone. The official Chinese name is the HTC凯 旋X310e, which means “triumph” or “victory” when translated. It has no official English name. “Eternity” is the phone’s code name.
thats o m g, beauty and definitely elegant.
To be honest,, I'm kind of jealous! I wish I was Chinese now.lol ... Look at those screen shots! That really looks cool and modern. Is there anyway we can get some kind of english version of this style in a theme? I'm not sure how this would work, or if that even makes any sense, but I want my screen looking like this, and also be able to understand it. We need quality themes that we can switch between like Asian, industrial, SciFi, seasonal,,, all within the metro language. It's feasible!
Oh, and the release into the Chinese market is phenomenal! I'm not sure if most people know how huge this is. Basically, its like releasing WP into the US market for the first time today. China has MANY potential WP customers. China has many customers in general. Lol
Now I'm going to need some serious convincing that metro wasn't designed in Chinese script. Those screenshots, especially the first one...
I'm off to learn Mandarin with the ultimate goal of using my phone in Chinese.
What's so different about those screens? The first appears to be the Music +Video hub with album art. The second is the plain old Office Hub. The third could be any number of applications. Nothing stops an app from having a nice background. Check out Bing or WeatherLive. Certainly the Chinese characters are prettier than anything western, but using them kind of presupposes you can read Chinese.
Good news... The only thing that concerns me is lack of VPN support... VPN is a critical element in every country with internet censorship.
When will you release Tango for hi end?
Chinese...it makes me hungry for some egg rolls right now. Yum.
For those wondering and can't read Chinese, the interface is actually not that different from the english versions
First one is Music/Video hub, with the cover art
Second one is just the Office hub
Third one is the Pictures hub, with a photo background
One thing that's changed in the photos hub is that names are vertical beside the pictures because Chinese names are typically 2-3 characters and can be read up-down or left-right
How would English names appear in the Chinese UI of the picture hub?
Michael, as far as I know HTC isn't selling the phone until March 28th. They're still only taking pre-orders. I was at the Beijing launch: cn.engadget.com/.../windows-phone-7-5-tango-china