While almost all of China-based vendors have selected Android, Huawei Device, ZTE and Lenovo have additionally adopted Windows Phone 8 (WP8) and ZTE and TCL Communication will adopt Firefox OS, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

Huawei Device unveiled its first WP8 smartphone Ascend W1 at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show and will launch it in the China and Russia markets in January and then in other markets, the sources indicated. ZTE and Lenovo will launch WP8 smartphones possible in the first half of 2013, the sources noted. ZTE and TCL Communication are developing Firefox OS through cooperation with Mozilla, with smartphones based on such OS likely to be adopted by Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Sprint Nextel, the sources pointed out.

These vendors' adoption of non-Android platforms is to jump out of Android-based homogeneous competition and establish business relations such as with Microsoft through adopting WP8 to develop Windows 8/RT tablets and with different supply chain makers and telecom carriers through adopting Firefox OS, the sources pointed out. However, their shipments of WP8 or Firefox OS smartphones are expected to be in small volumes because the hardware supply chain for WP8 is not so large as that for Android and the global reputation for Firefox OS is limited, the sources indicated.