Alibaba is hoping for a boost for its e-commerce-oriented mobile-phone OS from a new partnership with Chinese handset maker Meizu, according to ITNews.com.
Alibaba’s YunOS, introduced in 2011, is a heavily modified version of Android that Alibaba originally planned as a way to promote the company’s e-commerce services such as Tmall (think of it as Alibaba’s answer to Amazon’s Fire OS). But YunOS has struggled to attract well-known handset makers and has less than 1 percent market share, according to IDC.
The problems with getting YunOS partners mirror Alibaba’s problems with mobile commerce in general. The company dominates PC-based e-commerce in China, but has struggled to extend its success into mobile commerce. Meanwhile its largest rival, Tencent, dominates social networking and online gaming in China, but is struggling to get a foothold in e-commerce.
While Meizu isn’t a top-five smartphone vendor in China, it’s still the best known of YunOS’s handful of Chinese partners. Meizu said it will offer YunOS on its forthcoming flagship phone, the $289 MX4, which will ship in November. Until now, Meizu’s phones have run a customized version of Android that Meizu calls Flyme OS, and Meizu said it plans to integrate those customizations into YunOS.
Meizu cited YunOS’s ability to offer better security and performance and longer battery life for the shift. But the appeal of partnering with Alibaba largely lay in the chance to leverage the Internet to pull in users and sell more phones, said Meizu vice president Li Nan during the announcement on Tuesday. “This partnership will not only help users, but could also change the industry,” Li added.
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