Chinese mobile phone startup Smartisan planning a retail store

Chinese mobile phone startup Smartisan has been making big moves this year. This past spring, its launch event for its T1 smartphone became China’s most-livestreamed tech event, and although it did hit a bit of a snafu this summer when the phone actually launched in such limited quantities that hardly anyone could get it, the company is still shooting for the stars.

Or rather, it would be more precise to say that it’s shooting for the streets. According to Chinese tech blog 36kr, the company is planning to build at least one retail store, and hopes to open one in Beijing as early as this year. That project is still in the early stages; the company hasn’t chosen a location yet. But in the meantime, Smartisan has just today opened a Smartisan T1 product experience center at the Suning on 118 Zhongguancun East Road.

Smartisan also announced via Weibo that it has made significant improvements to its production capacity. Anyone who has already preordered the T1 should be seeing it ship sometime within the next couple weeks, and future orders should be shipped more quickly too. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see if Smartisan can actually deliver on this promise.

(See more: The one-man show that carried Smartisan to stardom in China)

(Source: 36kr)