China Mobile, the country's largest mobile carrier by subscriber bases, is making a new push to promote its own mobile operating system by establishing an "innovation alliance" to further its development, the US-based PCWorld reported Monday.
The company, which has more than 570 million customers, launched its mobile operating, Open Mobile System (OMS), last year. The operating system is based on Android, but was modified to localize it for the China market, the report said.
Manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung and Lenovo have already been building and selling smartphones using OMS. But China Mobile still faces stiff competition over who can offer the most attractive handset offerings, according to the report.
China Unicom, although far smaller with 163 million mobile subscribers, offers some of the most popular smartphones in the country. For example it is the sole Chinese carrier of Apple's iPhone 4.
Analysts said this put China Mobile at a disadvantage. But to improve on its smartphones, the carrier announced on Monday it is preparing to establish its Ophone innovation alliance, said Bill Huang, general manager of the China Mobile's research institute.
At the time, Huang said there were around 600 apps developed specifically for Ophones. In contrast, Apple's App Store features more than 300,000 third-party applications.
Building less expensive smartphones without sacrificing quality is critical to China Mobile's business strategy, Huang added. "If we can effectively make an advanced smartphone less expensive, then more users will come to use China Mobile's services in a shorter amount of time," he said.>
