Cooperating with China's three telecom service providers, brands such as Nokia, HTC, Samsung Electronics and Huawei will introduce their Windows Phone 8 models into the China market starting December, targeting the mid-range and high-end smartphone segments, according to industry sources.

Nokia will launch its high-end Lumia 920 in cooperation with China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile, while HTC will release its WP8X jointly with China Unicom and China Mobile.

Samsung's and Huawei's WP8 models are expected to hit the shelves in China in early 2013, the sources indicated.

The unlocked WP8 models offered by Nokia, HTC and Samsung are likely available for CNY4,000-5,000 (US$640-800) in China, but prices for contract subscribers may not go down significantly since China-based carriers are not as enthusiastic about WP8 phones as their counterparts in the US and Europe and thus subsidies offered by China carriers for the purchase of WP8 phones will be limited, the sources commented.

Prices of those WP8 models are higher and therefore it would be difficult for them to help the Windows Phone deepen its penetration rate in China, added the sources.

Android-based smartphones accounted for a 65.2% share of the smartphone market in China in the third quarter of 2012, followed by iOS models at 18.6% and Windows Phone at 5.7%, according to data compiled by Kantar.