Huawei, China’s largest networking and telecoms equipment supplier, is preparing to releast its new Ideos U8150 smartphone. And what will set it apart from the many others scrambling to get a slice of this market? Price!

Huawei will launch the new phone in partnership with 2degrees, with which hit has already teamed up to bulid the 2degrees network. The Ideos model will see Huawei and Google united by 2degrees to develop the Android phone.

Huawei’s Product Marketing Director, Alan Wong, explains having chosen the Android OS partly because of its success and rapid absorption of market shares on other platforms.

The companies are expecting to capture a significant part of the market because of the affordable price of the phone. At $379, Ideos will not join the other smartphones in scaring off the youth from upgrading.

Huawei expects a turnover of $6 billion for 2010, and is already placing a lot of its chips in mobile phone growth in 2011.

The Ideos phone was launched in Auckland today. US projections expect that within 12 months, every second phone sold in the city will be a smartphone. US figures are considered representative indicators of trends in other parts of the world.

Ideos is the first Android product to come out of 2degrees, but the company promise more before the year is through.