Motorola launched its first online-game-playing mobile phone, picking China for the initiative in a bid to tap into one of the world's top game markets, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the US handset maker, the world's second-biggest mobile phone manufacturer, rolled out its E680G, a modified version of an existing gaming handset adapted to play online titles from Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a top Chinese game operator.
'This is our first online game on a handset,' Ian Chapman-Banks, Motorola's North Asia general manager of marketing and business development for mobile devices was quoted as saying.
'About 83% of China mobile phone users play games on their mobile phones. This is why we've chosen China first,' he added.
The agreement covers mobile versions of Shanda's World of Legend and MagicalLand online role-playing adventure games, the report said.
Software for the games can be downloaded from a Web site, www.motogames.com.cn, which also offered 350 other third-party games for subscribers of China Mobile , the world's biggest mobile carrier with 270 million subscribers.
With more than 400 million subscribers and 100 million handsets sold each year, China is the world's biggest mobile phone market.
The Reuters report said China is also a top market for online-game playing, with its online-game sector revenue expected to nearly double this year to around $900 million, according to various forecasts.