Samsung launches first TD-LTE smartphone

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd launched the first smartphone supporting a Chinese-developed fourth generation (4G) telecommunication standard on Wednesday.

The Galaxy Note II N7108D, the first Samsung smartphone that can run on a Time Division- Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) 4G mobile network, is about to hit the Chinese market next month, Cui Xiaodong, general manager of Samsung China's mobile telecommunication department, said at a Beijing news briefing.

Though China has yet to commence the commercial rollout of 4G mobile services, several mobile phone vendors, including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ZTE Corp and LG Electronics Co, have already unveiled TD-LTE smartphone models.

Samsung is the No 1 mobile vendor in the Chinese market and the company offers a diversified product portfolio covering almost all price ranges. Cui said Samsung will launch more TD-LTE mobile phones in the second half of this year and they will target high, medium and low-end users.

"In 2014, Samsung will continue to enrich the product line. We will add some new technology and applications, such as the NFC function and voice input service Lingxi, on our 4G phones," said Cui.

Lingxi is a China Mobile promoted application that is similar to Apple Inc's Siri service.

Tang Jianfeng, deputy general manager of China Mobile Terminal Co, said the development of TD-LTE industry is gaining momentum. China Mobile, with more than 740 million subscribers, will continue to push R&D works of multi mode, multi band TD-LTE smartphones, Tang said.