“Google Inc has too much control over China’s smartphone industry via its Android mobile operating system and has discriminated against some local firms, the technology ministry said in a white paper,” Melanie Lee reports for Reuters.
“The white paper, authored by the research arm of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said China had the ability to create its own mobile operating system,” Lee reports. “‘Our country’s mobile operating system research and development is too dependent on Android,’ the paper, posted online on Friday but carried by local media on Tuesday, said. ‘While the Android system is open source, the core technology and technology roadmap is strictly controlled by Google.'”
Lee reports, “Analysts said the white paper, which lauded Chinese companies such as Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group and Huawei Technologies for creating their own systems, could be a signal to the industry that regulations against Android are on the horizon.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The time for an inexpensive iPhone for China (and other developing markets) is nigh.