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Alibaba Looks To Rural China To Popularize Its Mobile OS

Posted by samzenpus on from the taking-it-to-the-country dept.

itwbennett writes: E-commerce giant Alibaba Group hasn't given up on its YunOS mobile operating system, and is taking the software to China's rural markets through a series of low-cost phones, which will be built by lesser-known Chinese brands and will range from 299 yuan ($49) to 699 yuan. Slashdot readers may remember that in 2012, Google claimed it was a variant of its Android OS, sparking a clash that threatened to derail Alibaba's effort to popularize the mobile OS.

9 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luck by pieisgood · · Score: 1

    They're most likely illiterate, speak a local dialect and don't have the means or desire for the device. /cynicism

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    1. Re:Good Luck by qbzzt · · Score: 1

      Or maybe they are an underserved market that could really use better communication. http://www.businessinsider.com...

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    2. Re:Good Luck by kamapuaa · · Score: 2

      Sure, but even stupid peasants are mostly literate (Google says 96% literacy rate), and of course with written Chinese, dialect isn't really that important.

      And of course they want phones, to talk to their cousin/son/whatever that manufactures iphones for $.50/hour in Shenzhen.

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    3. Re:Good Luck by pieisgood · · Score: 1

      A basic google search shows this, but this is an inaccurate figure for rural chinese. the actual literacy rates in rural china are much lower. Most likely 40% are illiterate, and growing in some provinces.

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    4. Re: Good Luck by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Though this runs counter your comment about dialect, if literacy is a real problem, text to speach software would solve the issu. Perhaps making the phone more, not less, important.

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  2. Regarding int'l skepticism with American providers by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    Is it safe to say, even despite the NSA revelations by TheTrueHOOHA, that the Chinese may trust the Chinese government even less?

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  3. I, for one... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    I thought that I'd heard some pretty compelling OS sales pitches in my time; but "Perhaps the #1 choice of impoverished peasants buying their first finite state machine!, if we can get the OEM deals through" simply redefines my expectations of what is possible in the genre. What could possibly be more thrilling than that?

  4. Most growth in Apple was in China by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    The platform restriction of the Alibaba mobile OS is competing with the Apple mystique for their mobile OS. Since we can measure Apple sales of mobile units, we see a sharp spike in sales in China, and thus Alibaba may not do as well with this approach as they might have otherwise.

    Until they get the powers that be to block Apple, of course.

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    1. Re:Most growth in Apple was in China by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      Apple probably sells almost no units to the rural poor in China.

      Steve would bristle at the idea.