Google's phone is an effort by the company to join in competition for a share of China's mobile phone market, which is the world's most populous.

Although there are no figures yet from other research firms to corroborate Analysys' findings, an online traffic track tool provided by Baidu Inc, Google's major competitor in China, revealed that search inquiries for the US search engine increased 79 percent in China during the past week.

It said besides major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, users in other cities such as Zhengzhou, Nanjing and Xi'an were also among the top cities where Google drew interest.

During the past few days, it has appeared that Google has lowered its tone on its threat to retreat from China.

CEO Eric Smith said in an interview with Newsweek on Friday that it was possible that the company can work out an agreement with the Chinese government and continue to operate in the country.

It was also reported that Google is investigating whether employees in its China office were involved in the attacks on its network.

Related readings: Net humor is the same - whether Google or Baidu No report from Google yet: Ministry of Commerce Beijing appears firm on Google Google's loss could be Baidu's gain Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said yesterday that foreign enterprises doing business in China, including Google, should respect Chinese laws and regulations. Ma said at a regular news briefing that companies coming to China should "respect the public good and cultural traditions in China, and bear a social responsibility".