China Mobile seeks supporters for OMS
Establishes Innovation Alliance to support its Android variant and expand its ecosystem
Published: 13 December, 2010
READ MORE: China | China Mobile | TD-SCDMA | Android
Many cellcos are trying to create a distinctive user experience that reinforces their brand and customer connection, but the Chinese majors are going a step further than most. Like the Japanese carriers in the 3G era, China Mobile and China Unicom have created their own operating systems - Android-based, but sufficiently different to be incompatible with the base platform. And like role models such as NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile aims to create a large ecosystem, and win support from third party operators.
The oPhone hardware/software platform, which underpins Mobile's experience, has already been adapted for international markets and has even been approved by AT&T. It runs an Android variant, OMS, but could also support other OSs like Symbian. Now the Chinese operator is establishing an industry alliance to stimulate support for, and evolution of, its software framework.
The oPhone Innovation Alliance aims to compensate for the disadvantages, to Mobile, of having a single-carrier 3G network, TD-SCDMA. This has given the leading operator an uphill battle to keep up with Unicom in the range of handsets it can offer, and its 3G market lead is considerably smaller than in 2G. To improve its device family and get closer to some international partners, it will invite a wide range of players to join the new Alliance, which was announced by Bill Huang, general manager of the China Mobile Research Institute.
"Our oPhone strategy is constantly moving forward," Huang said during in a speech at a conference in Beijing, though he did not give any details of the Alliance as yet. As well as improving the device ecosystem, he hopes to attract more applications for OMS, which still has fewer than 1,000 programs - though it has recorded a total of 70m downloads since it opened in 2009.
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