Sony Ericsson today announced the M608c a 2.5G variant of their M600 smartphone for the Chinese market. The M608c is a tri-band GSM phone (900/1800/1900) runs UIQ 3.0 on top of Symbian OS 9.1 and features 80MB of internal memory, a 2.6 inch QVGA touchscreen, support for multiple push email systems, a MP3 and video player, the Opera web browser, a RSS feed reader, Chinese and English handwriting recognition and a Memory Stick Micro slot.

Availability is scheduled for Q3 2006. You can read the full press release (including specifications) here.

China is becoming a very important market for mobile phone manufactuers as it respresents the largest emerging market. This is reflected in Sony Ericsson's press release

“M608c is tailor made for China and comes from a strong global portfolio of UMTS products that Sony Ericsson has now put in place in readiness for the eventual introduction of 3G services,” said Gunilla Nordstrom, Corporate Vice President of Sony Ericsson and President of Sony Ericsson China.

“China is the single largest market for Sony Ericsson and a strategic base for global business success. We have established the sole in-house global manufacturing base in China. Our investment in R & D enabled us to develop product like Z530 in China, for China and for the world. M608c is another example that further demonstrates our strong commitment to the China market,” she said.

The M608 has the same specification as the M600 except for the cellular conectivity and software localisation changes.

You can read our preview of the M600i here.