ZTE to ship Android phone with Glonass GPS in Russia
|Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE has developed with Russian Glonass chipset manufacturer AFK Sistema the first smartphone to embed both Glonass and GPS receivers. Glonass, a competitor to the GPS constellation currently has 22 satellites in the sky and is to reach 24 later this year to offer a global coverage beyond the Russian Federation.
The new smartphone called ZTE A918 will come to the market in March 2011 at a retail price of around $360. The smartphone runs on the Android operating system with a Qualcomm processor. According to Reuters, the two companies plan to manufacture half a million of these phones.
Russia plans to introduce duties of around 25 percent by 2012 on the import of mobile phones without the GLONASS navigation system, as part of efforts to encourage worldwide adoption of the technology.