Many mobile phone brands in China use the free Android system, so there are many domestic brands with low prices. It is precisely because of the free advantages of the Android operating system that the cost of making mobile phones by mobile phone manufacturers is very low. And based on Google's open source Android system, many well-known domestic mobile phone brands have also done secondary development or re-optimization of the interface on this basis to make their brands more distinctive. Although many mobile phone manufacturers in China have advertised their own operating systems, they are still essentially Android.
But many people don't know that Google's Android system is not really free forever. In 2012, Google acquired then-mobile phone giant Motorola, which required Chinese consent (as mandated by antitrust laws). The Chinese Ministry of Commerce approved the acquisition conditionally, on the premise that Google must commit to the policy of keeping the Android operating system free and open to the outside world for the next five years. However, it has not yet been decided whether the fee will be charged after 5 years. It has been more than 5 years since this agreement, and Google has not given specific charging standards and related information.
In China's mobile phone market, the proportion of mobile phones using the Android system accounts for about 85%, the Apple system accounts for about 14%, and the remaining 1% is other rarely used systems. Although there are some operating systems of their own in China, such as Alibaba's yun os system, this system has been in operation for 5 or 6 years and has not made much noise. In fact, YunOS only rewrites Android's dalvik in essence, and then rewrites several Android apks. It can be far-fetched to think that it is two independent systems from Android. But so far, only some small domestic brand mobile phones are in use, and they have not replaced Google Android's position in the mobile phone system.
In China, it is precisely because of the free Android system that the development of Chinese mobile phones has been promoted. Because there was a certain cost to manufacture mobile phones at that time, the most used mobile phone system before Android appeared was the MediaTek MTK system, but this mobile phone system was not free. Mobile phone manufacturers have to pay MTK a high system usage fee every year, so ordinary small mobile phone manufacturers do not have this ability. The mobile phone market is also monopolized by several large companies. But after the emergence of Android free and open source mobile phones, the cost of entering the mobile phone manufacturing industry is very low.
We have been accustomed to the free Android system for so many years, and many mobile phone manufacturers are developing and maintaining the Android system in depth. It has made domestic people already dependent and habitual to the Android system. Perhaps Google's open source Android system was out of rogue or voluntary, but it actually cultivated users' habit of Android system. If Google charges for Android, mobile phone manufacturers will not pay for this order, and the final cost will still be transferred to consumers. The possible result is that small mobile phone manufacturers are out of the game, and larger mobile phone manufacturers will increase the sales price of mobile phones to maintain the operation of enterprises.
Therefore, China needs to develop its own mobile phone operating system. Maybe now Ali is ahead in this regard, but the strength and speed are not enough. Only when a completely independent mobile phone system really appears in China can we easily deal with various risks and difficulties.