Independence from Google
Global IT companies are accelerating the development their own operating systems in order to keep Google in check. This is because they are increasingly concerned over the dominant influence of Google and its Android OS in the mobile market. These days, Google is putting more and more pressure on device manufacturers, calling for the use of Android instead of their own smartphone OS brands.
The trend is led mainly by Xiaomi, Amazon, Nokia, and Samsung Electronics. Android smartphones’ global market share has risen to as high as 84 percent as of the end of the second quarter of this year.
The purpose of the anti-Google movement is the establishment of an independent platform not based on Android but the Android Open-source Project (AOSP). In fact, Google Android is the Google Service Framework (GSF) mounted on the AOSP with Google apps such as Gmail, YouTube, and Play Store added to it. The companies are planning to set up their own OS, not subordinate to Google, through customizing the AOSP.
For example, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which runs on the AOSP-based Fire OS, is increasing in popularity. Moreover, it mounted the same operating system on the recently released Fire Phone and blocked its access to the Google Play Store.
Xiaomi, the largest smartphone manufacturer in China, uses a non-GSF OS customized from the AOSP in its handsets supplied to the Chinese market. Also, it is expanding its own MI user interface and the Xiaomi Store, an ecosystem independent of the Google Play Store.
Samsung Electronics has worked together with Intel to work on the Tizen OS and release Tizen smart watches and digital cameras. Smart TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and cleaners running on the same OS are scheduled to be released early next year, too. Tizen smartphones are likely to follow them within next year.
Nokia, on its part, unveiled its Android smartphone employing the independent Nokia X platform earlier this year. The company is going to keep Android phones at bay by means of Windows OS handsets.