Taiwan-based High Tech Computer (HTC) will launch seven smartphones that support China Mobile's next-generation mobile standard by the end of next year, executives said Monday.

HTC will launch its first phone for the China-developed 3G standard, TD-SCDMA (Time-Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), this year with six more to follow next year, Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, told reporters at a news conference. He's in Taiwan for a week-long visit to sign up new partners in the communications industry, including service providers and smartphone makers.

The HTC deal reflects China Mobile's efforts to promote the unproven TD-SCDMA standard among Taiwanese vendors. China hopes to see the standard used outside of the country, but another reason China Mobile has sought overseas partners is to gain credibility for its work on a next-generation 4G standard, TD-LTE (TD Long Term Evolution), said Bertram Lai, an analyst at CIMB-GK Securities.

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