News/Rumors September 11, 2012

Apple and Google’s New Biggest Threat: Alibaba

It is well known that Apple is currently arguing on patents with most of the tech giants, including Samsung, HTC, and Amazon, who recently declared war to the Cupertino Company. So far, Apple won all the battles and managed to stand on top of the tech industry. Yet, a huge threat that no one ever heard of is challenging Apple and Google.

Apple and Google are the two most powerful worldwide leaders of the mobile market and of the Internet, but a third company comes to claim the smartphone market and it has to take on Android first.

China’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, launched the year that passed a Linux-based mobile operating system, called Aliyun, and it is now receiving increased demands from handset makers. The difference between Aliyun and Android/iOS is that users connect to apps over the Web instead of downloading them.

Moreover, Alibaba Group has great expectations from its mobile OS; there are only two mobile makers using Aliyun, namely Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co. and Haier Electronics Group Co., and the company believes that their number will increase to five by the end of this year.

“We want to be as strong as Android in China,” Chief Strategy Officer Mr. Zeng said on the sidelines of a conference. “We have quite a few [new handset partners] lined up,” he said, declining to provide the names of the handset makers.

Anyway, Google’s Android is bigger in china than Apple’s iOS and Aliyun has to take on Gmail, Google Maps and Google Search first and if it does, then Apple should really feel threatened.

See more details about Alibaba’s plans on The Wall Street Journal.