While the technology industry is closely watching Apple Inc.'s patent war against rivals using Google Inc.'s Android mobile operating system, China already has homegrown software that is trying to take on Android in the country's fast-growing smartphone market.
Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company by transactions, is seeing stronger demand from handset makers for its Aliyun mobile operating software it launched last year, Chief Strategy Officer Zeng Ming said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The company expects the number of smartphone makers using Aliyun to increase to five by the end of this year from two currently.
"We want to be as strong as Android in China," Mr. Zeng said on the sidelines of a conference. "We have quite a few (new handset partners) lined up," he said, declining to provide the names of the handset makers.
Unlike Apple's iOS or Google's Android, on which apps are installed on the device, Aliyun runs Web-based apps that are stored on remote servers. The system also comes with its own mapping and email applications.
As Apple's patent litigation against rival handset makers are widely viewed as an attack on Android, its U.S. court victory last month against Samsung Electronics Co. has fueled discussions about possible alternatives to Google's software.
While Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone is the most obvious candidate, other lesser known platforms such as Aliyun are also drawing more attention than ever.
"If I were a handset maker and if the only option is Android, I would be scared," Mr. Zeng said. "Any company would like to have at least two suppliers."
It took Alibaba about three years to develop the Aliyun operating system, which the company unveiled in July 2011. The project involved more than 1600 engineers, the company said.
So far, Chinese handset maker Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment, whose phones are sold under its K-Touch brand, and major Chinese home appliances maker Haier have released smartphones that run on Aliyun.
With one billion mobile phone users, the Chinese market has room for a broad range of handset vendors, from high-end players like Apple, to those selling inexpensive smartphones that cost less than $200—a category that has seen explosive growth in the past year. Given the market's diversity, Alibaba sees room for more mobile operating systems beyond Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone.
China is also set to overtake the U.S. this year as the world's largest smartphone market. According to research firm IDC, China will account for 26.5% of global smartphone shipments in 2012, compared with 17.8% for the U.S.
Mr. Zeng said Android faces challenges in China because Google's search, Google Maps and Gmail functions are unavailable or limited in the country.
In 2010, Google rerouted its search engine from mainland China to Hong Kong due to censorship concerns. While Android is still available in China, Google has steadily lost market share in search and other online services to Chinese rivals.
"Android is not able to provide good user experience in the Chinese market…. but we can," Mr. Zeng said.
For Alibaba, which operates popular shopping websites Taobao and Tmall, part of the incentive for developing its own mobile operating system came from the expected migration of online shopping and other Internet activities from personal computers to mobile gadgets, Mr. Zeng said, adding that Aliyun could help generate more mobile transactions for shopping sites.
The advantages for Aliyun include, for example, the integration of the online payment services provided by Alipay, an Alibaba affiliate, into the operating system to make mobile transactions easier and more secure, Mr. Zeng said.
Still, some handset makers say it won't be easy for any mobile operating system, even for Windows Phone, to replace Android, which has already built a strong ecosystem with handset makers and app developers around the world.
According to market research firm IDC, 68.1% of smartphones shipped world-wide in the second quarter used Android, while 16.9% were Apple products running on iOS. Windows Phone accounted for only 3.5%.
Luo Zhongsheng, the head of the handset business at ZTE Corp., the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in China in the second quarter, said in a recent interview that he expects Android to remain dominant because it would take a long time for new app ecosystems to develop around other software platforms. "Nobody can challenge Android for the time being," Mr. Luo said.
Alibaba's Mr. Zeng acknowledged that it will take time for Aliyun to become a major smartphone operating system. But the company remains hopeful and continues to bet on the business. Last week, Alibaba announced its first major update to Aliyun, including an upgraded search engine function and more efficient management of data traffic.
As the Internet goes mobile, an operating system like Aliyun that runs Web-based apps will find more demand as it can help bring websites designed for PCs migrate easily to the mobile platform, Mr. Zeng said.
"It's a completely new area (for Alibaba) and takes tremendous technology investment," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment