WHERE ARE THE MTK6589 / MT6589 PHONES?

There has been a lot of hype about the MTK6589 / MT6589 Quad Core processors in the fourth quarter of last year and now it is already almost in the middle of Janurary 2013 and there are still no MTK6589 phones in sight. The only phones that are now circulating around are the engineering samples.

So, when can we expect to see these phones appearing on shelves or online stores? My guess is mid-March to early April.
Due to the arrival of the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival on Febuary 10, many workers are making preparations to go back to their hometowns. This will happen in the last week of January and early Feburary.  From Feburary 10, ALL companies will be closed for an entire week. The more traditional companies will close for 2 weeks. Factories which choose to operate during the second week of the new year will only have skeleton crew operating.
We can tell that the new MTK6589 phones will all be delayed because of this. Some companies will release their phones before the Chinese New Year but it will be in limited quantities and are expected to be sold out quickly. We will only start to see these phones in volume only in March and April.

If anyone wants to have a Chinese low cost quad-core phone NOW, there is the NEWMAN N2 which uses the powerful Samsung Exynos Quad core processor also used in the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2.  You will have to order it quickly before Chinese New Year arrives. You can check it out here:

Newsmy N2 Newman N2 - 4.7 inch HD Screen 1.4GHz Quad-Core Android Phone