Lenovo is ignoring the current rift between Google and China as it prepares to launch its first mobile phone, the Android-based LePhone to the Chinese market.
The company says its LePhone will be available on three Chinese service providers, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom, this coming May.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the LePhone will become available to “overseas markets” later this year.
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The bold move from Lenovo follows news that both Motorola and Samsung have succumbed to the pressure of the internet giants and delayed the release of their own Android-based handsets, the XT701 and GT-i6500U respectively.
The disagreements between Google and the Chinese government have escalated in recent weeks to the point where Google has threatened to pull out of the country after troubles with hacker assaults and conflicting views with the government over censorship.
Lenovo’s LePhone, revealed at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will sport a 3.7-inch 800×480 capacitive touchscreen, 3.5mm headphone jack, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel camera on the back with a second snapper on the front.
For those of you who find touchscreen keyboards just a tad too fiddly, Lenovo are also offering a clamshell-style, snap-on optional external QWERTY keyboard.
