Huawei, a China-based wireless infrastructure and handset maker, will pre-install Opera Software’s mobile browser on a range of mobile handsets. Opera said in a release that Huawei will use the Opera Mobile 10 browser, which is developed for OEMs and operators. Jiang Huabing, Head of Huawei’s handset and R&D department, said: “China represents unique growth opportunities in the mobile market, and we hope that with the addition of Opera Mobile to our handsets, more of China will soon be online.”

The two companies did not say how many handsets will be shipped with the Norwegian-based browser, but last year Huawei shipped 30 million mobile phones. Opera has other reseller partnerships, including with AT&T in the U.S.

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, which already owns the Boost and Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) brands, maybe mulling whether to buy MetroPCS Communications so that it can dominate the prepaid wireless space.

The idea was floated by Greg Miller, an analyst for Collins Stewart in a note he wrote to investors, reports Bloomberg. He reasoned: “It helps Sprint continue to consolidate its position in the increasingly competitive prepaid marketplace in densely populated major metro centers while allowing MetroPCS shareholders an avenue to continue to participate in the market from a position of greater strength.”

Miller’s theory comes only a week after reports surfaced that Leap Wireless had hired Goldman Sachs to look into selling the company or merging with rivals. In that scenario, MetroPCS was considered a likely candidate. Miller did not address the likelihood of Sprint doing a complete roll-up, where it would buy both MetroPCS and Leap.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has lowered its “equipment recovery fee” to $150 from $350 when customers drop its Nexus One phone before their contract with T-Mobile USA officially expires. The change occurs just after the FCC formally sent letters to various operators and Google about wireless early termination fees. In this case, the Google fee is a bit confusing because it is in addition to the $200 fee that T-Mobile charges when users break a contract early.

The WSJ reports that a Google representative said the company had been working with T-Mobile to lower the equipment fee. The change was posted officially on Google’s terms of service page for the Nexus One. While the fee was changed, Google was clear that it doesn’t represent a change in its financial philosophy. It said. “We make no profit from commissions from operators or from equipment recovery fees, and our recovery fees are based on operator charges to Google for early termination of service,” the company said in a statement.

SurfKitchen, the UK provider of storefront services to carriers, has launched its first deployment in the U.S. with T-Mobile USA. SurfKitchen has integrated with T-Mobile’s web2go portal on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 7510, a low-end device, as a complement to the high-end bets T-Mobile is taking with Google’s Android. Release.

While the launch is limited to one phone, the deal is significant for SurfKitchen as it tries to help the carriers compete with app stores from other handset makers and providers. SurfKitchen’s CTO Dave Evans told mocoNews: “It’s pretty exciting and indicative of the overall ecosystem. We are seeing carriers be much more aggressive with what they do with app shops, as a way to differentiate themselves from OEMs. We are focusing how we support that.”

If only the rest of Electronic Arts’ businesses could be doing so well ... During the company’s earnings call Monday, executives said that the company’s digital business was “growing very rapidly and (is) profitable” (Executives had said during a call last quarter that digital was in fact now the most profitable part of EA’s business).

The digital business is now expected to reach at least $750 million in sales next year, up from about $575 million this year. By contrast, executives said that they are not counting on much—if any—growth in the company’s traditional “packaged goods” business, which should account for about $3 billion in sales.

»  The iPad hasn’t even shipped yet and the predictions already have Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) cutting prices if sales are slow. [MarketBeat]

»  Since the hype lessened over the past few weeks, less consumers are enthusiastic about the iPad. [iPhone Alley]

»  The lowdown on Samsung’s new platform/OS, Bada. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Leaked photos of the upcoming Verizon HTC Incredible. [PocketNow]

»  Linux originator Linus Torvalds swoons over the Nexus One. [Engadget]

With sales of traditional video games down, Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) continues to look (so far unsuccessfully) for its digital business to make up the gap. The video game giant said that its digital revenue reached an all-time high of $152 million during its third fiscal quarter, up 30 percent compared to the same period a year ago; mobile revenue was up 14 percent year-over-year to $57 million.

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q0308	Net Inc. vs Q0308
Electronic Arts	Release		25%	87%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Mobclix has partnered with Nielsen to be able to deliver more targeted mobile ads, giving it some name-brand recognition to stick out from all the competition.

The deal allows the ad network aggregator to resell Nielsen’s research products, which categorize consumers into roughly 150 segments based on a user’s age and gender as well as location, or other more lifestyle-like qualities, such as spending power and tech awareness, reports GigaOm. The benefit of this partnership is that typically more relevant ads are more successful and therefore fetch a higher price. Mobclix says there’s also a benefit to developers: they’ll be able to tell what kinds of apps resonate with their audience, and how they can increase user engagement, downloads and better rankings.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which shook up the e-mail industry when it integrated chat with e-mail, is now trying to catch up to its rivals by letting Gmail users share status updates. The WSJ reports that Google will soon add a “new module that will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with.” If it catches on, that could potentially add a new force to the Twitter-dominated microblogging world, considering that Gmail had 132 million unique users worldwide as of last March (the last figures I could quickly get my hands on).

Mobile phones in the future will translate languages in real-time, enabling people from around the world to understand each other—that is, if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can figure out a way to do it.

The internet giant, turned mobile phone inventor, thinks it can make a fairly operational system within a couple of years, reports the UK’s Sunday Times. The process will meld together its text translation services on the computer with its voice-recognition technology on the mobile phone. The end product will likely be inundated with challenges, considering that both services are fairly buggy and inconsistent today.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Ventures is leading a round of funding in social music startup TuneWiki; HillsVen Capital, Novel TMT, Benchmark Capital and Intellect Capital Ventures (the venture fund of Nordic phone company TeliaSonera) also participated in the funding. TuneWiki, which started out as a desktop app and site nearly two years ago, has since also launched several mobile apps for Android, the iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian, which have gained significant traction.