China Mobile, Symbian strike TD collaboration deal

China Mobile and the Symbian Foundation have struck a deal aimed at speeding 3G applications to market in China.

 

Under the deal, signed on Wednesday, the two companies have agreed to simplify the approval process for news submitted to China Mobile’s just-launched app store, Mobile Market.

 

China Mobile is now able to provide mobile developers with a one-stop facility for testing and approving their Symbian-based apps.

 

Currently, more than half of Mobile Market's 2,000 applications are based on Symbian. Mobile Market will also support applications published via Symbian's new application publishing program, Horizon.

 

The deal comes as China Mobile continues to struggle to attract customers to its TD-SCDMA network. By the end of July it had signed just over 1 million customers, compared to 497 million on its 2G network.