HTC Triumph Shows its Face and Chinese WP7 Localization

The Windows Phone 7 enthusiasts at the Chinese site WPDang have gotten hold of a China-spec HTC Triumph (aka: HTC Titan), pictured above, which looks likely to launch later this week. The HTC (TPE:2498) WP7-powered smartphone reveals how Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will localize its mobile OS for Chinese consumers, packing it with relevant pre-installed apps and ditching sync services to Twitter and Facebook, both of which are blocked in China.

And so the HTC Triumph will come pre-loaded with apps for Chinese web services and social media such as Baidu, Youku, Qunar, and Tencent’s Weixin. While some of this selection are indeed pre-installed, others are just links to the app in the WP7 Marketplace.

But a lot has been removed from WP7 – the latest 7.5 ‘Tango’ – for China, such as the banishment of Twitter and Facebook syncing from the People Hub area. Weirdly, LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) has been ditched as well, despite the fact that it’s not blocked in China. Disappointingly, no local social media have been added in their place – not even Sina or Tencent Weibo. And so that just leaves the options for Windows Live or Google accounts:

XBox Live support has not been ripped out, but it has been hidden from view of Chinese WP7 users, as the gaming network is not officially launched in China. Indeed, game consoles as a whole are a legal grey area in China. But a tweak of your location in the Windows Live ID settings will enable the XBox Live goodness.

Overall, the Chinese WP7 experts at WPSauce, who first translated the original Chinese scoop, were not too impressed with what they saw, joking that it has taken a year and a half for Microsoft to delete stuff from the OS in readiness for its launch in China. And I must agree with that; I was expecting more than just a bunch of pre-installed apps for WP7’s Chinese debut.

Perhaps Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) will come up with some interesting Lumia-only features for its own WP7 phones, which CEO Stephen Elop has said will launch on March 28th.

Hit the source links for more images and details on the HTC Triumph.

[Source: WPDang (in Chinese), via WPSauce]