Nokia is planning to hold its Chinese Windows Phone launch event on March 28th. The Finnish company is expected to unveil its exact Lumia models and device carriers later this month, alongside availability dates for each handset. Although the launch event will take place in March, we don't believe devices will be immediately available. A Nokia spokesperson confirmed the event in an email to us today and noted that the company plans to bring Lumia devices to China beginning in April.

Nokia's March event will likely set the stage for Microsoft's Windows Phone launch into the Chinese market. The software giant has started accepting apps from developers for China, but has not yet fully launched its Windows Phone Marketplace in the region. Nokia "helped elevate the priority" of bringing Windows Phone devices to China, according to Microsoft's Greg Sullivan. In an interview with us at Mobile World Congress, Sullivan explained that Nokia's first low-specification Windows Phone, the Lumia 610, is part of a broader effort to offer low-cost handsets for markets like China. The devices, part of the Tango engineering effort, feature 256MB of RAM and include some restrictions on certain applications and features. Nokia is also expected to launch a Chinese variant of its flagship Lumia 800 device (alongside the 610) at the end of the month, bringing low- and high-end Lumia devices to China.