Alibaba: Investing $150+ Million a Year in Mobile OS to Beat Android, iOS
China’s biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba, launched its Aliyun mobile OS back in July of last year, bringing an entirely new mobile ecosystem into the crowded space that’s dominated by Android and iOS. And now Wang Jian, the president of Alibaba Cloud Computing (the department that created the Aliyun OS), has said that the e-tailer is willing to invest RMB 1 billion ($158 million) per year in its development, with a dedicated R&D team of 1,200 people.
中国最大の電子商取引企業であるAlibabaは昨年7月にAliyun mobile OSを立ち上げ、AndroidとiOSによって支配されている混雑した世界に全く新しいモバイルの生態系をもたらした。そして今、Alibaba Cloud Computing（Aliyun OSを生み出した部署）の社長であるWang Jian氏は、同社が年間10兆人民元（1億5800万ドル）を1200人からなる専門のR&Dチームによる開発に投資するつもりであると述べている。
中国の最も大きな電子取引企業(Alibaba)は、完全に新しいモバイルの生態系をアンドロイドとiOSの領域を混合したスペースへもたらし、昨年の7月、そのAliyunのモバイルのOSを背景に売り出した。
また、今、Wang Jian氏、Alibabaクラウド・コンピューティング(Aliyun OSを作成した部所)社長は、電子小売業者は、1,200人の専用研究開発チームとの開発で、年間10億(1億5800万ドル)は、喜んでRMB投資すると発言する。
Even with the might of the company behind it, the OS limped to one million in sales in its first year, and is currently found on two smartphone models – the K-Touch W800, and the budget Haier Zing (pictured). One million is a pretty large figure, but with nearly 200 million 3G users in the country, and Android and iOS usage growing at 401 percent in China, it’s tough to see how it can be a contender. But Aliyun will get a new flagship phone very soon – we’ve seen it, and it does indeed look like more of a world-class smartphone than the two that came before it – so that might have an impact by the time of next year’s sales figures.
The cloud-oriented OS focuses on web apps and is based on Linux – not adapted from Android. But it can run Android apps via virtualization, giving users access to lots of neat apps and games. In Wang Jian’s talk with local media, as reported by Techweb, the Ph.D and computer engineer said that Aliyun is mainly going after Google’s Android OS. He stressed that, in terms of mobile usage of cloud computing, Google wasn’t doing it right, and he and his team is confident that Aliyun represents the better way to do a mobile platform.
