Moto Out-Apps Apple in China
Motorola (MOT), which has regained some credibility with the Droid/Milestone and its new focus on Android smartphones, also seems to be trying in earnest to do things right again in China, where it has lost significant market-share in recent years.
Aside from a relaunch Monday of Moto’s hit Ming series in China, the company has started a Chinese version of its application store called Shop4Apps which, unlike Apple’s Chinese App Store, is available in Chinese.
Moto’s application store, which can be used in addition to Google’s (GOOG) Android Market on Motorola smartphones (though the marketplace isn’t preloaded), also accepts payment in Chinese currency and via widely used payment methods in China like AliPay and through prepaid phone cards. Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, meanwhile, requires a dual-currency credit card, which many in China don’t have.