Geopolitics has led to alternative mobile operating systems

In 2018, six top US intelligence chiefs from the NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies told a US Senate committee that they believed China’s Huawei and ZTE should not be trusted because they were providing communications infrastructure to China’s government. framework, thereby giving Chinese intelligence agencies access to personal data and other sensitive information. FBI Director Chris Wray at the time testified, “We are deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is bound to foreign governments to gain a position of power inside our telecommunications networks.” do not share our values.” Huawei equipment was banned in the US after legislation was passed to ban it. Shortly thereafter, Google stopped providing Android for mobile phones made by Huawei, severely hampering its efforts in that market. (By 2018, Huawei had overtaken Apple as the leading cellphone maker and was behind only Korea’s Samsung.)

In China, the development of alternative OSes was spurred by US government sanctions on Chinese tech firms such as Huawei, ZTE and TikTok. It developed Huawei’s HarmonyOS, COS and YunOS, inter alia. These are open-source platforms that can be used on a variety of devices including smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets.

COS, short for China Operating System, is another alternative to Android. It was developed by the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and aims to provide a secure and independent OS for Chinese users. CoS is currently being used by the Chinese government and is available on select smartphones. It is based on the Linux kernel and supports a wide range of programming languages ​​such as C++, Java, and HTML5. COS also has a ‘deep learning’ feature, which allows the system to learn and adapt to individual user behavior over time. This can be used to create a personalized experience for users and can help improve overall performance. It is on par with the experiences that iOS and Android are trying to create for their users.

In Russia, development of the OS was accelerated following the Ukraine War. The Russian government was working on developing its own OS, known as Aurora OS, based on the open-source Sailfish OS. Aurora OS aims to provide a secure and independent platform for Russian users. It was being developed by Rostelecom and is currently being used by government agencies and state-owned firms. Like other mobile OSes, the platform is designed to be modular and customizable, allowing it to be adapted to different hardware and software configurations.

Wired magazine (Bit.ly/3Zpxw59) said in an article condemning the Russian effort: “Since the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Russia has faced an exodus of tech companies and services. including the exit of the most popular smartphone brands Samsung and Apple. In response, the country has doubled down on its efforts to achieve technological self-sufficiency, including creating a new Android smartphone. 100,000 smartphones and tablets by the end of 2023 It is one of Russia’s biggest IT companies with an ambitious goal to capture 10 percent of the consumer market by 2026. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in February that Russia would replace 85 percent of foreign software with Russian alternatives. wants to change that, opening dozens of so-called import substitution centres. The plan, however, is at an early stage with no road map in sight.”

Android and iOS dominate the global smartphone market and it may initially be difficult for these new platforms to gain traction outside their home markets. Additionally, mobile OS development and maintenance are complex and costly, and it will not be easy for these new platforms to compete with the resources and expertise of established players such as Google and Apple. But one reality that tech firms around the world have faced is the ‘death of globalisation’ and a return to a multi-polar world. The world has also seen a secular trend away from globalization in the wake of supply-chain problems from Covid, apart from the quick and bitter words from countries like Russia, China and the US.

The development of alternative mobile OSes in China and Russia highlights the growing importance of technical freedom and data privacy and security in the global tech industry. Efforts are also being made to manufacture an Indian OS. Initially, the success of these platforms will depend on their ability to compete with established players such as Google and Apple. In the future, however, government actions such as sanctions and other trade war tactics may well charge back (or harm) such growth. According to Yahoo Finance (yhoo.it/3ZMstvD), Huawei lost a third of its revenue after the US sanctions.

As technology plays an increasingly important role in our daily lives, the global development of alternative mobile operating systems could have far-reaching implications for the future of the global technology industry.