India encourages the creation of a "local" mobile operating system: "hard" iOS and Android-EEWORLD

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The Indian government is planning to encourage the creation of a "native" mobile operating system to compete with iOS and Android, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced recently. This week, the proposal was announced by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.

The new operating system is apparently intended to "create an alternative to iOS and Android" in India. Chandrasekhar noted that iOS and Android have driven the development of the hardware ecosystem, and the government hopes the new platform will reflect this and give Indian brands room to grow.

Currently, the Indian government is looking for suitable startups and academic institutions that have the ability to develop a new operating system. Detailed discussions are currently focused on defining clear goals for the project, which will be followed by legislation targeting specific development goals. Chandrasekhar hinted that startups and companies working on the Indian operating system may attract domestic and foreign investment when raising funds.

According to India's Economic Times, industry analysts are skeptical about whether India's local operating system can compete with mobile platforms such as Apple or Android.

Jack Gold, chief analyst at market research firm J. Gold Associates, said that while India is working to boost its tech industry domestically and create competitors, "it's unlikely to be a true competitor to Android and iOS."

Gold pointed out that this is not the first time India has tried to develop its own operating system. Other countries have also tried to develop their own operating systems. For example, China's Alibaba Group has set up a local life service department and launched the "Alibaba Local Service Operating System."

"Because of the huge population base in China, and India as well, they think this could be a real game changer in their markets," Gold said. "But the fact is that most smartphone users are attracted to specific applications that they use regularly, and if those apps are not available on the operating system of a specific device, then users will not buy them." Major software vendors have no incentive to port their apps to local operating systems, "so it's a chicken and egg problem - apps won't be ported because there are few devices, and people won't buy devices because there are no popular apps on them. This is what led to the decline of operating systems such as Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS, etc." There is one possibility for the potential operating system developed in India to succeed: it might run in compatibility mode, allowing Android apps or iOS apps to run on it. But Apple is unlikely to allow this. Even trying to port apps from the open source Android platform would be a difficult task, Gold said.

"So I don't think a local Indian operating system would have any real impact on the market share of Android or iOS," he said. "India, in my opinion, would be more successful in trying to make a locally designed smartphone using Android, like China has done. But India doesn't have the industrial base that China has to manufacture and distribute it around the world, so the chances of success for India are slim."

In 2010, the Indian government reportedly announced its commitment to creating a new computer operating system to improve the security of its computer systems. As for this latest attempt, Chandrasekhar said that India's development of a local operating system would not only "create an alternative to iOS and Android," but like the latter operating systems, the platform could boost the local mobile hardware market.

In October 2021, Chandrasekhar also announced a plan to make India a hub for electronics manufacturing and global supply chains. "We see India as an important provider of trusted goods and services to the global market," he said at the Indian Public Affairs Forum at the time. "There is an opportunity now and we are seizing it."

Chandrasekhar said he would like to see India's electronics manufacturing industry worth about $250 billion to $300 billion by 2024 or 2025.

Data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that India's mobile phone market is still lagging behind. For example, about 30% of the market is still occupied by keypad feature phones. According to IDC's quarterly mobile phone tracking survey, the top three brands in the Indian market are Xiaomi, Samsung and vivo, with shares of 23%, 17% and 16% respectively. Apple's share of the Indian smartphone market hovers around 3%.

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