With rumors that China Unicom might be soon ink a formal deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to China, Chinese telecommunications rival China Mobile is hoping its new OPhone will keep the company competitive.

China Mobile has reportedly started testing the OPhone and gained good results. The OPhone handsets based on the enhanced data rate for GSM are expected to enter the market at the beginning of May and those based on the TD-SCDMA standard will be launched in the fourth quarter this year.

The OPhone handset is a kind of Internet handset developed based of China Mobile's OMS mobile phone operating system; while the OMS mobile phone operating system is based on Google's Android system. Pictures of OPhone handsets developed by Lenovo first started circulating last year.

Previous reports stated that China Mobile's own open mobile system will focus on the mobile Internet functions while integrating many of China Mobile's unique services to enable the future handsets to fit China Mobile's network and business to the largest extent, so as to occupy a top position in the future 3G market.