Baidu eyes mass market with low-cost smartphone

SHANGHAI May 15 (Reuters) - Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine, said on Tuesday it will launch a cheap smartphone with Foxconn Technology Group, Sichuan Changhong Electric Co and China Unicom, marking the company's entrance into the mass smartphone market.

The Changhong-branded smartphone to be made by Foxconn will use Baidu's mobile Cloud operating system and will retail for less than 1,000 yuan ($160), Baidu said in a statement.

Baidu did not give a release date for the low-cost phone, but said it will be available in the "very near future".

Baidu said on Friday that the Baidu Cloud will replace its Baidu Yi mobile operating system that it launched last year.

China's ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies dominate the country's low-end smartphone space. Samsung Electronics was the top smartphone vendor in China in the fourth quarter last year.