MIIT: Google Discriminates against Chinese Mobile OS Developers
People.com.cn, 3/05/13
In its recently released Mobile Internet White Paper (2013), China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) noted that Google's Android smartphone operating system poses a severe path-dependence risk for China's smartphone industry. While Android may be open-source, the core technologies and technology roadmaps are under the tight control of Google. Chinese mobile operating system developers have been subjected by Google to such exclusionary practices as delayed releases of operating system source code and the use of commercial agreements to restrict terminal manufacturers.
As of the end of 2012, the White Paper said, Android had captured 86.4% of the Chinese market, followed by iOS (8.6%), Symbian (2%), and Windows (1.2%). Domestically developed operating systems accounted for less than 1% of new phones.
The White Paper states that China currently possesses a sound industry foundation for the development of a mobile operating system. Chinese telecom equipment and terminal manufacturer Huawei, e-commerce company Alibaba, and internet company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) are among the companies that have made major financial and personnel investments in the development of a mobile OS as matter of corporate strategy. Any domestically developed OS would face serious challenges, however: the robust ecosystems developed by Google and Apple present a major obstacle, both in terms of applications and hardware.
Keywords: government policy mobile OS wireless Android Google MIIT regulation
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