Google delays release of Android smartphone apps in China
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Your support makes all the difference.Google on Wednesday said it has delayed the China release of programs such as Gmail and maps that it makes for smartphones running on Android software.
"At this time, we are postponing the availability of Google mobile applications on Android devices from operators in China," a Google spokesman told AFP.
"Android is an open source mobile platform, so anyone can bring Android-powered devices to market."
Google in January delayed the China release of two mobile telephones based on its Android software but other makers of handsets based on the mobile operating system sell devices in that country.
While Google is putting off release in China of programs it makes for Android phones, applications remain available from third-party developers.
The US Internet giant on Wednesday debunked reports that it had canceled a Beijing portion of a swing through Asia to show software developers its new Nexus One smartphone based on Android.
"The reports are incorrect," the Google spokesperson said. "There was not a Nexus One launch event scheduled in Beijing."
Google is hosting Android Developer Labs in Singapore, Taipei, and Hong Kong in coming weeks, according to the spokesperson.
Google has been in a stand-off with China since declaring in January that it plans to no longer filter Internet results there as required by local law.
The California firm said it is meeting with Chinese officials to figure out if there is a way to operate its google.cn search engine uncensored.
Google said it will shut down the China online search service it launched in 2006 rather than continue to bow to Chinese censors.
The Internet giant is still censoring Web search results in China but that will change in a "reasonably short time from now," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently said.
Google has trodden carefully, partly for the sakes of workers in China, since it made public on January 12 a wave of "sophisticated" cyberattacks that originated in that country.
Cyber spies that struck at Google were after source code and email accounts of human rights activists, according to the Internet firm.
Chinese officials have steadfastly denied any involvement in the cyber espionage and have shown no signs of giving in to Google's wish for an unfettered search engine.
Cyberattacks on Google and other firms are part of a shadowy campaign in cyberspace being waged by China and other nations which goes largely undetected, according to Web security experts and analysts.
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