Andre Yoskowitz
27 Aug 2014 13:21
In January, we reported that the government-backed Chinese Academy of Sciences, in conjunction with Shanghai Liantong Network Communications Technology, were working on a secure OS for the Chinese market.
It appears now that the homegrown OS could be made available as soon as October.
The operating system will allegedly work on desktops, set-top boxes and mobile devices rivaling Apple, Microsoft and Google. Especially recently, the Chinese government has made issue with Microsoft over the lack of security of their Windows operating system, even blocking Windows 8 and Microsoft Office from government-issued devices.
Ni Guangnan, who heads the alliance, says they hope to launch the OS by October including full app stores and legacy app support. In time, they hope the software will replace desktop OS within 1-2 years and mobile OS within 3-5 years. Certainly, the alliance will have an uphill battle on that front. Android by itself has over 1 billion users, and Microsoft has over 1 billion Windows users. Apple has over 100 million Mac users and near 500 million iOS owners.
"Creating an environment that allows us to contend with Google, Apple and Microsoft - that is the key to success," added Ni.
Source:
Reuters