An unidentified industry insider cited by Marbridge Consulting claims that Chinese Internet company Sina and Samsung have formed a partnership wherein the former will operate the Samsung Apps mobile application store for China.
It will not directly be handled by Sina, but by 1000CHI Software Technology, a mobile phone download client developer that is backed by the Internet company.
A spokesperson for Samsung China said that the move is part of Samsung’s plan to encourage development of localized mobile applications. It is also presumed that after this deal, Sina’s mobile applications will be pre-installed on Samsung handsets, which currently accounts 11% of all mobile phones in China, making it the 3rd largest phone manufacturer in the country with the biggest mobile phone population.
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