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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.

3 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. 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?

  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.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  3. 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.