According to reports in local media, Google has unilaterally canceled development of its gPhone with China Unicom and two other handsets manufacturers in China, marking another major adjustment following the announcement of its possible withdrawal from China's search engine market.
China Unicom has reportedly published an internal notice stating that Google will no longer give authorization to cooperative content using Google's marks and applications. The product launch of China's first WCDMA-based Google Phone which was previously scheduled on January 20, 2010, has also been canceled.
Motorola and Samsung, the two manufacturers participating in this project, have apparently received notices from Google and were asked to eliminate all Google-related elements from the handsets involved in the cooperation with China Unicom.
Google reportedly did not set any limit to these two manufacturers' utilization of Google's Android platform, but clearly required that handsets involved in the cooperation with China Unicom shall not have Google's logo, the English words of "Google Phone" or the Chinese words of "Google Experience Handset". In addition, the Google applications pre-installed in these handsets, including the search engine and maps, should be deleted.
So far, Google China has not given further explanation for the unilateral project cancellation.
China Unicom is also Apple's partner for the iPhone, which made its China debut last year.