The first smartphone using Russian positioning technology GLONASS went on sale on Monday, operator MTS said, marking a milestone in a project creating rival to the U.S.-led Global Positioning System (GPS).The MTS Glonass 945 smartphone is manufactured by China's ZTE Corp, uses Google Inc's Android software and also supports the rival GPS technology.
Russia hopes the project will spark a domestic technology revolution and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has personally spearheaded the project acting as a salesman for the system on international visits.
"Successfully bringing a product to market is a significant step forward for the GLONASS project," said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd on Monday.
"Other handset vendors will be particularly eager to see how Russian consumers respond, to understand whether GLONASS support is a matter of appealing to national pride or whether it genuinely encourages greater location-oriented usage," he said.
