Many China smartphone vendors use Android, a situation forcing some to consider moving to Windows Phone 7 to escape potential royalty payments to Apple. The switch comes after Apple won an initial court battle against Android-powered handset maker HTC opening up handsets using the Google software to pay fees to the iPhone maker.
At least two major Android-based handset vendors in China, Huawei Device and ZTE, are reportedly planning to switch to Windows Phone 7 software codenamed ‘Mango.’ ZTE has already unveiled one Mango-based smartphone. Last week, the U.S. International Trade Commission initially ruled that HTC violated two Apple patents. The ruling caused some experts to warn Apple could create extremely high royalties to punish Android-based rivals.
Both Apple’s possible attack on Android and move away from the OS by China smartphone vendors could benefit so-called “white-box” companies that fly under most radars. The question for Apple fans, though is will this potential weapon against Android in China help or possibly backfire on the tech giant’s plans for that giant nation.
