Sony Ericsson A8i heading for China Mobile

China Mobile uses the unusual TD-SCDMA network, but it has a massive subscriber base which means that it is worth manufacturers making handsets specifically for this market.

Running a variation of Android called OMS, the Sony Ericsson A8i has a 3.5" 854 x 480 pixel display, a 5 megapixel camera and all the usual stuff you'd expect such as WiFi and GPS.

It looks very much like the white version of the XPERIA X10 but with a smaller screen, and its certainly an attractive European-style handset that should appeals to better off customers.

Why is China Mobile so important? Well, it has over 500 million subscribers and is the single largest mobile phone network in the work. Those are big numbers.. and unlike Vodafone who are number 2 in the world, the China Mobile business is one single market which give significant economies of scale.

Nokia too are competing with the Nokia X5 TD-SCDMA which is a very conventional Symbian smartphone. We know which one we would choose!

Via [1] [2]