First Windows Phone Lands in China

The first Windows Phone device has landed in China, Microsoft announced today.

The HTC Eternity will be the first Windows Phone-based smartphone in the region, Microsoft's Michael Stroh wrote in a Wednesday blog post. The 4.7-inch device features front- and rear-facing cameras and "comes stocked with a slew of popular Chinese apps," Stroh wrote.

Microsoft said the HTC Eternity will be the "first of many" Windows Phone handsets to hit the Chinese market, including those from Nokia and other phone makers.

The HTC Eternity includes a Chinese-language interface, which Microsoft showed off during a Wednesday press event in Beijing. The demo shot (above) is in simplified Chinese, but traditional Chinese is also available, Microsoft said.

"Our engineering and design teams really sweated the details, working hard to create a version of the software that both showcases the inherent beauty of Chinese characters and excites Chinese customers," Stroh concluded. "We can't wait until they get their hands on it."

During that Beijing press conference, meanwhile, Simon Leung, Microsoft China's chairman and CEO, said besting Apple's iPhone in China is the company's "interim goal," while surpassing Google's Android platform is a longer-term goal, according to Bloomberg. "Having a goal to be number two is not really a goal," Leung said.

The iPhone 4S arrived in China on Jan. 13, and unruly crowds eager to get their hands on the smartphone prompted Apple to . The iPhone 4S also earlier this month, China Telecom.

According to , China is poised to overtake the U.S. as the leading market for smartphone shipments in 2012. China will have a 20.7 percent share of the global smartphone market this year, narrowly overtaking the U.S. share of 20.6 percent, IDC said. The Asian nation edged out the U.S. in smartphone shipments for two consecutive months in the second half of 2011, and is expected to continue that momentum this year and beyond.

Microsoft in the U.S. in October 2010. While the new OS received , particularly the most-recent "Mango" update, it has struggled to compete against Android and Apple's iOS, the current smartphone powerhouses. During this year's Mobile World Congress, however, on the next version of Windows Phone, known as Tango.

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