Hours after we reported that HTC has launched a variant of Salsa in China with a dedicated Weibo button, its official model name has come to light. It will be called HTC Weike and sold for 3,380 yuan (US$524).
As the smartphone has been made in partnership with Sina, HTC Weike will come pre-installed with 19 of Sina applications allowing access to its various services like Tencent IM.
HTC Weike isn’t first such smartphone to be released in China, Toabao –a Chinese online retailer also released a self branded smartphone in the country with its own apps pre-installed.
“This is the first time for a handset company to cooperate with a Chinese Internet giant, and I think this could be a trend when the mobile Internet era catches on”
- Ray Yam, China president of HTC Corp
