Report: China Unicom to sell Android phones

China's second largest mobile phone company will be selling Google Android phones after all, according to a report from Reuters.

China Unicom's chairman Chang Xiaobing told Reuters Wednesday, on the sidelines of a conference in Beijing, that the carrier "recognizes that Android is a mainstream system." And he told the news service that the company "will definitely use Google's Android in our mobile handsets."

Google postponed the launch of two Android-based mobile handsets in China on Unicom's network earlier this year after Google discovered a sophisticated and targeted attack on its network in mid-December that originated in China and also targeted what is believed to be at least 30 other companies--including Yahoo, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Dow Chemical, Northrop Grumman, according to sources and reports.

In the attack on Google, Gmail accounts of two people were targeted, but only limited information was exposed, Google said. Separately, accounts of Gmail users who were human rights activists were compromised somehow and had been breached, Google said.

As a result of the attacks, Google said it would stop censoring its Web search results in China and would consider ceasing to do business there.

Google's reversal on censorship in China raised fears that Android phones would miss the growing Chinese market. The delayed launches of the Motorola and Samsung Android phones on China Unicom's network heightened those fears.

But China's IT ministry has said it will not restrict the use of Android if Google's software follows local regulations. Lenovo, a top selling PC maker in China, said it still plans to use Android on devices it plans to sell in China, including a new smartphone.

[byoung328]

Kind of reminds me of Sony. One division is happy to sell you a nice new CD/DVD burner for your VAIO computer, then the Music/Motion Picture division sues you when you use it. I guess there's too much money to be made in the mobile handset market for Google to pull out on this one.

[dream_fly]

Ethics is nothing. Money is king. Both sides must have agreed on this part.

[Cloud67]

Is anybody surprised?