The formal launch of the phone scheduled for Wednesday was postponed, Google spokeswoman Marsha Wang said, declining to give a reason or say when it might take place.

The postponement came a week after Google announced it was considering pulling out of China after discovering that it had been the target of cyber-attacks aimed at accessing e-mail accounts of human rights activists in China and abroad.

Some experts say that Google employees could have unwittingly participated in the hackings by being victims of the cyber-attacks themselves. Local Chinese media reported that some Google China staff members had been denied access to internal networks and other employees had been transferred to other offices in the Asia Pacific region.

Talks between Google and the Chinese government are expected to begin this week. Google says that it will pull out of China unless it is allowed to run an uncensored search engine.

Source : Konaxis