Nokia and China Telecom to Launch Lumia 800C March 31st, WP7 Marketplace Now Live in China

Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) has just wrapped up a launch event for its WP7-powered phones in Beijing. With an emphasis on localized features and Chinese apps and content, Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop (pictured above) demoed the Lumia 800C and Lumia 600C, which will both launch soon on China Telecom’s CDMA 3G network.

The Lumia 800C, running Microsoft’s WP7 OS, will launch on March 31st and cost 3,599 RMB (US$570), which is a little cheaper than rumors predicted. The budget 610 model will come later “in Q2 2012” with no word on price for the moment. There was no mention at all of an anticipated Lumia 719 handset.

China Telecom's Wang and Nokia's Elop hold up Lumia 800C phones.

China Telecom (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728) was given a lot of air-time as well at the Nokia event, with the telco’s president, Wang Xiaoxhu, taking to the stage at one point, brandishing a Lumia device and shaking hands with Mr Elop (pictured right) at the same time. Mr. Wang later said he’d been using the Lumia 800 for a day-and-a-half and was loving it. The ‘C’ designation at the end of the pair of Nokia phones shown today indicate they’re destined for China Telecom. Presumably, support for the two other mobile telcos in the country will appear in due course.

But the main message from Elop and Nokia was how in-tune the company’s new phones are with local users. There were demos of the company’s apps which, it says, are better suited to China than those found on iOS or Android. These included Nokia Music, Ovi Maps, Nokia Drive, and Microsoft’s Marketplace for WP7. On top of all that, Elop announced a program called ‘Be Top’ to reward Chinese app developers who make quality software for the platform.

Live on stage, Nokia’s Simon Leung said that Microsoft’s app Marketplace for China opens this afternoon, in readiness for the first buyers of the Lumia 800C phone this weekend. And, sure enough, here’s the localized WP7 store. Here’s the Sina Weibo app pictured in it:

A few finer details were mentioned as well, such as how the People Hub (i.e.: the contacts app) in WP7 lists people by the pinyin order – not Chinese character lexical order – of their name; which sounds like a useful and speedy way to find people’s names that’ll make sense to youngsters used to inputting pinyin.

After focusing on the phone, Nokia wheeled out some Chinese social media giants in the form of the CEOs of Sina (NASDAQ:SINA), Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU), and Renren (NYSE:RENN) to join top execs from Nokia and Microsoft on stage; lots of chit-chat and mutual endorsement ensued. Note that Microsoft’s own event was last Wednesday, where the Redmond company emphasised how there are already 2,000 Chinese-made apps ready for WP7.