China’s biggest telecom equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, and one of its biggest Internet companies, Tencent, are teaming up to offer smartphones based on Google’s Android software preloaded with Tencent applications.
The phones, besides tapping the popularity of Tencent services including its QQ instant-messaging program, could also benefit from a low price compared to most Android phones: 1,000 yuan before any operator subsidy, or about $151, according to a Huawei spokeswoman.
The “HiQQ” phones will come with 19 Tencent applications, including its QQ chat program, a mobile browser and social-networking service Qzone. Tencent had 636.6 million active instant-messaging user accounts at the end of September. Many of its users talk to friends on QQ via mobile phone.
Huawei already sells the two phone models, the U8500 and the C8500, that it plans to release in HiQQ editions early next year, the Huawei spokeswoman said. One will be compatible with third-generation mobile services from operator China Unicom, and the other with China Telecom’s 3G services, she said.
The new phones mark an effort by Tencent to increase the time users spend on its services. They also expand the ways in which Huawei is using Android. Huawei already offers Android phones in and outside of China, including in Europe, and it appears to be promoting them with the same low-price strategy that has boosted its telecom equipment business. Huawei has also has an Android tablet computer, the S7.