The new phone sports an impressive set of tech specs, including a 4.3 inch AMOLED screen and a 1.5 Ghz dual-core Qualcomm processor. At the press conference Dell’s president of Greater China said that this would be the first of many Dell products coming to the Chinese smartphone market, and that China was becoming a sufficiently important market that many of Dell’s products would be launching there before other countries. This is already the case with the Dell Streak 10 Pro, a 10 inch Android tablet that launched in China earlier this year, but has yet to make it to American shores. In fact, Dell has pulled out of the US tablet market completely, at least for the time being, though the company maintains a presence in the tablet market in other countries, including China, where the Streak 10 Pro is fairly popular.

Some background info on that development: as we reported earlier, Facebook and Baidu are supposed to be working together on a new, China-specific social network.  And that has a sort of unstoppable sound to it, considering Facebook’s expertise in the field and Baidu’s search dominance in China.

So if the social network comes into being, proves popular, and attracts advertisers (who should already be more than familiar with Baidu), it could represent a significant new stream of revenue for whatever parties share in the profits.

More than a few investors have apparently perceived and bet on that possibility.  Baidu’s stock jumped 2.68 percent during normal trading hours today, putting its market cap at an impressive $50.63 billion.

By comparison, the respective market caps of AOL, IAC, Yahoo, and eBay are just $2.11 billion, $2.72 billion, $21.72 billion, and $40.47 billion.

Of course, the trick will be seeing if Baidu’s stock manages to sustain these levels over time.  Baidu and Facebook still haven’t confirmed the existence of any alliance, and even if they are working together, it’ll probably take more than a few weeks for their new social network to come together.

Baidu will have to deliver its first quarter earnings report soon, too, which is sure to have an effect one way or the other.

Bill Bishop, who’s bilingual and thereby able to read the original story, wrote yesterday, "Sina News reported on Friday afternoon that unnamed Baidu executives have flown to Silicon Valley to discuss possible cooperation with Facebook."

That would fit an established pattern of behavior.  First Mark Zuckerberg visited Baidu’s headquarters in December.  Then a Baidu exec called for Facebook to enter China, and Facebook opened an ad sales office in Hong Kong.

So it’s easy to imagine another meeting would follow, perhaps along with a formal arrangement.

And on that note, Bishop later wrote, "What might a Baidu-Facebook partnership look like?  I have no insider knowledge, but that won’t stop me from speculating.  It would probably take the form of a joint venture for China to launch a China-specific, sanitized version of Facebook that would have limited if any linkages and data sharing with the global, ex-China Facebook."

As always, we’ll be sure to report any significant updates.

To sort of cut to the chase: Baidu’s stock is up 6.69 percent in early morning trading, which shows the degree to which the company impressed investors.  Jumps like that don’t occur on an everyday basis.

As for some details, Baidu reported $371.3 million in net revenue (a 94.4 percent increase from a year earlier) rather than the $360.3 million analysts had forecast.  Also, the company reported $175.9 million in net profit (up 171.3 percent) instead of $156.2 million.

That led to earnings per share of $0.50 versus analysts’ estimates of $0.46.

Robin Li, Baidu’s CEO and chairman, stated as a result, "This has been another quarter of outstanding performance for Baidu, with market momentum and our continued improvement in monetization fuelling top line growth.  Baidu continues to build upon our clear leadership in China’s search market.  Looking forward we will further integrate search with online activities such as e-commerce and social networking and I am confident that Baidu will remain at the center of China’s Internet ecosystem."

Baidu’s execs expect it to continue to return good financial results, as well.

Michael Kan wrote earlier today, "The search engine giant’s share of Chinese search advertising revenue rose to 23.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, a 1.5 percentage-point increase from the third quarter, Analysys International said Tuesday."

That’s a nice increase for a three-month period, especially since Google’s share had been sliding.

Of course, Kan noted, "At the end of 2009 . . . Google had a 35.6 percent share."  And Analysys International indicated that Baidu’s share of the market remained at 71.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, so the dominant Chinese company isn’t exactly floundering.

Still, a gain is a gain under any circumstances, and Google fans might be able to interpret this as a sign Google’s rebounding from rock bottom.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for additional stats that could signal if Google’s managing to make gains in a country with over 1.3 billion people/potential users.

Michael Kan wrote today, "China’s largest search engine Baidu reports that its new microblogging service has grabbed more than 1 million users after being launched three months ago."

Then Kan continued, "[T]he service incorporates Twitter-like features, but is being built to become a fully fledged social networking platform.  Baidu Talk was launched in mid-September as a closed beta, with new users being brought in through invitation only."

So this is a very impressive achievement that appears to outshine Twitter’s own arrival at the million-user mark.  As a result, Baidu fans and shareholders may be able to look forward to the company hauling in revenue from a whole new field.

Then one other thing to consider is what this development might mean for Facebook in China, as one Baidu exec said earlier this week that he’d like to see Facebook enter the country.  Now it looks like Baidu would be able to lend the company some expertise if both sides were agreeable.

Baidu Talk will definitely bear watching over the next few months.

Kaiser Kuo, Director of International Communications at Baidu, indicated his support while participating in an online discussion about Mark Zuckerberg today.  On Quora, Kuo started by confirming that Zuckerberg met with Robin Li, Baidu’s CEO.

Then Kuo continued, "[A] Facebook entry into China would be fraught with challenges but personally I believe that having Facebook in China, even if it were compelled to abide by China’s strict censorship requirements, would still be better than not having it here.  I believe that it would be a net positive for China’s Internet users.  More connectivity is better than less."

Of course, plenty of questions about human rights and censorship exist.  Plus, American companies have often had trouble getting traction in China even when they obey the Chinese government’s every request.

Still, it looks like Facebook’s got a friend in Baidu – the company that’s pretty well crushed Google – when it comes to establishing a presence in China.

We’ll keep an eye out for any interesting statements on Zuckerberg’s part when he returns from his trip to Beijing.  Hat tip goes to Oliver Chiang.

Owen Fletcher wrote earlier today, "In a breakdown of Chinese online advertising market share, Beijing research firm Analysys International says Alibaba has overtaken Google for second place behind Baidu thanks in large part to its online shopping unit Taobao."

Then Fletcher continued, "Alibaba now owns a 9.3% market share and the number two spot in China’s online ad market, according to Analysys International (Word doc).  Meanwhile, Analysys says, Google’s share fell 2 percentage points from the second quarter, when it held the number-two spot, to 8.9% in the third quarter."

For its part, Baidu ended the third quarter with a market share of 30.1 percent.

Google wasn’t much luckier in the search market, either as its market share fell from 24.2 percent to 21.6 percent while Baidu’s share rose to 73.0 percent.

That’s bad news for the search giant, which has by and large begun to play by China’s rules since it backed down on its threat to leave the country.  The attraction of 1.3 billion potential users was huge, to be sure, but if Google compromised its morals and fails to make much money, the situation becomes lose-lose.

Deutsche Bank analyst Alan Hellawell explained his company’s stance in a research note, stating, "With Baidu’s monetization metrics having taken a step up to a higher level, we expect the incremental benefit from [new advertising system] Phoenix Nest to wane."

"We thus expect upside potential to market forecasts to be limited," Hellawell then continued.  "We do not expect growing B2C ad budgets to substantially drive Baidu’s revenue growth in the next 2-3 years."

That’s bad news for the company, since with Google more or less out of the way, many onlookers guessed Baidu would be able to dominate the industry, first making more money as its market share increased and then just benefiting as online ads became more popular.

On the bright side, Deutsche Bank did at least lift its price target on Baidu from $80 to $86, which is a nice bit of news for current shareholders.

For the record, Baidu’s stock is down 2.37 percent at the moment.

Indeed, there doesn’t seem to be much disagreement on that point.  According to Michael Kan, Qihoo 360 said in a statement, "In providing search results, Baidu has made no obligation toward protecting its users.  Baidu is not a security company.  Baidu should check to see if these two software programs are operating correctly."

Baidu seems to feel that Qihoo 360 owes it a formal apology – and rather a lot of money – however.

Baidu’s suit actually seeks to make Qihoo 360 publish an apology on all of its properties and a few other prominent sites, cover its legal expenses, and then pay 10 million yuan (or about $1.47 million) in compensation.

It’s possible Baidu will pull off a win and attract some users as a result of this push, too, as the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court has accepted the case.

We’ll see what happens.  Unfortunately, there doesn’t yet seem to be a timetable in terms of a resolution.