Competition in mobile operating systems intensifies

hkn

Competition in mobile operating systems intensifies [Copy link]

Competition in mobile operating systems intensifies

2006-8-4

　　Although the curtain of 3G in China has not yet been opened, the convergence trend of mobile communications has made people clearly see the key to the future mobile phone operating system platform. Recently, the competition among software companies in this market has become unprecedentedly fierce.

Software Enterprise Action Acceleration

Microsoft, the global software giant, recently held its annual "Microsoft Mobile and Embedded Developer Conference" in China, focusing on the past and future of embedded technology, market transformation and trends, and officially released the beta version of Windows CE 6. Last year, at the conference also held in Beijing, Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 5.0.

The same theme for two consecutive years, Microsoft has been determined to gain more market share in China's mobile communications market. Dr. Zhang Yaqin, Microsoft's global vice president and president of China R&D Group, said that Microsoft's judgment and strategy on the Chinese market are: mobile and embedded technologies and products are becoming a new highlight in the development of China's information industry.

Just a few days before the Microsoft conference, the global smartphone operating system giant, British Symbian, launched its latest operating system Symbian OS 9.3. The new version of the operating system adds support for multiple mobile communication technologies, the biggest highlight of which is the support for 3.5G HSDPA high-speed data network.

Although Linux, one of the three major mobile phone operating systems, has the lowest market share in China, it has the support of major manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung, and the market share of Linux platform mobile phones has not dropped in the market competition. Just a month ago, the four major mobile phone manufacturers Motorola, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Samsung Electronics, together with the two major mobile communication operators NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, officially announced that they would set up a foundation to develop a universal mobile phone platform based on the Linux system.

Three operating systems dominate the market

With the trend of smart phones, the role of operating systems has become increasingly prominent. At present, there are also some domestic software manufacturers focusing on the research of smart phone operating systems, including Hopen (Haopen System) of Kaisi Group, Delta (Dao System) of Keyin Jingcheng, Doeasy (Doeasy System) of Bird, etc. There are also some operating system platforms that are secondary developed on the Linux open source system, such as Linous (Lingchi System) of Yulong, etc.

According to CCID Consulting data, China's smartphone sales reached 3.778 million units in the second quarter of 2006, but the entire market is dominated by three operating systems: Symbian, Linux and Windows Mobile.

Li Xuefang, an analyst at CCID Consulting's Consumer Electronics Consulting Division, believes that mid-range and low-end 3G phones mainly use closed operating interfaces, while high-end 3G phones will use open embedded operating systems. Compared with 2G phones, the proportion of 3G phones using operating systems will increase.

CCID Consulting predicts that by the end of 2006, 2G mobile phones with operating systems will account for about 10% of the entire market, while 3G mobile phones with operating systems will account for about 30% of the entire market. The main reason is that 3G mobile phones need to cooperate with operators to carry out various businesses.

However, Li Xuefang believes that the arrival of 3G will not bring disruptive changes to mobile phone operating systems. She said that mobile phone operating systems are the basic software platforms that support mobile phones to realize various functions, and some 3G data services have already been applied on current 2G or 2.5G networks.

However, Zhao Yan, vice president of Shanghai Ketai Century Technology Co., Ltd., which focuses on developing mobile phone operating systems based on TD-SCDMA technology, believes that a new operating system is needed in the 3G era. He predicts that with the emergence of new services, China's mobile communication industry chain will change in the 3G era, and a software platform that can support multiple services will be needed.

Domestic software manufacturers have advantages

Whether it is Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Nokia-supported Symbian or the Linux operating system that has been adopted in Motorola and Samsung mobile terminals, they have been widely used in various types of smartphone communication products. As the leaders of mobile phone operating systems, they occupy a considerable share.

In the 3G era, if Chinese software companies want to catch up, they still face great difficulties in carving out a niche in the three-way split.

Li Xuefang believes that 3G mobile phones are more advanced than 2G mobile phones in terms of information processing, online applications and wireless connections, and therefore place higher requirements on the mutual collaboration of various application software and wireless data exchange, which poses a challenge to domestic operating system companies.

However, she also pointed out that the domestic operating system is highly open, which makes it easy for mobile phone manufacturers to carry out secondary development and add various value-added applications, and can meet some special businesses and value-added service applications of 3G mobile phones.

In addition, for mobile phone manufacturers, the licensing fees and usage fees for using domestic operating systems are relatively low, which has cost advantages.

The mobile phone operating system "Hexin" developed by Shanghai Kotel Century integrates the 3G China standard TD-SCDMA technology and is now close to commercial use. It is understood that Shanghai Kotel Century is cooperating with a Beijing mobile phone designer to develop a TD-SCDMA smart phone, and the project has already started.

Industry insiders predict that if China's TD-SCDMA is successful, Kotel will be a dark horse in China's domestic software industry and will be able to compete with foreign manufacturers in the Chinese 3G market.

Author: Zhao Xiaohui Source: Economic Information Daily