Alibaba’s YunOS is expected to bypass iOS in Chinese mainland by the end of this year. It’s a Linux-based mobile operating system that aims to become the top smartphone operating system in the country. The analysts have also predicted that outside China, YunOS isn’t expected to enter the premium smartphone segment.
The chances are slim that you might be knowing about YunOS, the mobile operating system developed by China’s Alibaba group. In a recent development related to YunOS, this relatively newer OS is on the track to gather a 14 per cent share of phone shipments in mainland China.
According to forecasts made by analysts, by the end of this year, YunOS will beat iOS to become the second-largest mobile operating system in China. This forecast falls in line with Alibaba’s previous claims that YunOS has already passed iOS.
The top YunOS suppliers are Alibaba-backed Meizu, XiaoLaJiao, Strategy Analytics, and Doov. It’s being estimated that the total volume of YunOS-powered smartphones will top 100 million units.
Talking to Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post, a senior analyst said that despite the efforts made by Alibaba, the growth prospects of YunOS outside the country are likely to be limited to the cheap category.
Last month, at Alibaba’s cloud computing conference, YunOS director Aiden Yong said that YunOS aims to become the “go-to operating system” for China’s smartphone industry.
One of the main reasons why Chinese hardware makers are adopting YunOS is the subsidies provided by Alibaba.
Android-YunOS controversy
In the past, Google has called YunOS an Android fork. Google also allegedly pressurized Acer to pull the plug on its YunOS-powered Android smartphone. The company said that Acer couldn’t work with an Android fork due to its membership in Open Handset Alliance.
On the other hand, in the past, YunOS executives have stressed that it’s not an Android fork and it’s developed using open source Linux software. YunOS claims that its runtime environment consists of its own Java VM and cloud app engine, which supports HTML5 web apps. However, it accepts the act of borrowing some open source Android application framework and tools for allowing the users to enjoy 3rd party apps.
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