Skip to main content
March 28, 2012
Mobile

Nokia launches first CDMA Windows Phone in China



Wang Xiaochu, Chairman of China Telecom, and Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, announced the first CDMA Windows Phone in China at an event in Beijing today. The phone hits stores next month.

Now things are really getting interesting. China Telecom and Nokia just unveiled the Nokia 800C, the first CDMA Windows Phone in China and the first Windows Phone on a major carrier there.

The phone—a China-tuned version of Nokia’s popular Lumia 800—hits stores in April and comes in black and cyan. And Nokia is just getting started: A CDMA version of the Lumia 610 is also headed to China Telecom sometime in the second quarter of 2012.

The companies are a great match. Nokia has been building and selling phones in China, the world’s biggest mobile market, for 26 years. Some 250 million people there already use a Nokia phone.

China Telecom, meanwhile, operates the world’s largest CDMA cell network.

As a result, Nokia 800C owners will have access to popular Chinese media and social networking services including Sina, SOHU, Tencent and Renren. The phone also comes with Lumia-exclusive apps. Nokia Maps provides 3D maps of China and 190 more countries, plus content from popular Chinese travel, food, and real estate sites. Nokia Drive is a voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation app. And Nokia Music offers unlimited free music for 12 months in mainland China.

Here’s something else cool: To celebrate the first Lumia in the country, Nokia plans to offer 100,000 free downloads of the hit games Fruit Ninja and Plants vs Zombies via the new Chinese-language Windows Phone Marketplace.

Read more about today’s watershed announcement on Nokia Conversations.

The Nokia 800C, the first CDMA Windows Phone in China, will hit stores in April. It will come in black and cyan.