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Indian govt looking to break dominance of Android, iOS; to facilitate homegrown OS

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Jan 27, 2022, 07:46 PM IST
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Photograph:(Agencies)

Story highlights

Junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the government is talking with tech companies to come up with an indigenous operating system

The smartphone industry is dominated by two major operating systems—Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. And the Indian government has taken upon itself to shake the status quo.

In a recent interview, India’s junior Information and Technology (IT) minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the government is talking with tech companies to come up with an indigenous operating system (OS).

“There is no third one. Therefore, in a lot of ways there is tremendous interest in MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) and in the Government of India to even create a new handset operating system. We are talking to people. We are looking at a policy for that," Chandrasekhar told PTI news agency.

The government is looking for capabilities within start-up and academic ecosystems for the development of the OS, he said.

“If there is some real capability then we will be very much interested in developing that area because that will create an alternative to iOS and Android which then an Indian brand can grow," Chandrasekhar said.

In the last few years, Android and iOS have ruled the mobile OS market. According to Statcounter, a web traffic analysis website, Android OS rules the roost with 70 per cent market share, while iOS is at a distant second with 29.24 per cent.

Microsoft tried to break the duopoly and had even acquired Nokia to push out Windows phones, but it failed miserably.

Mozilla's Firefox OS was discontinued after efforts to crack India's mobile market with low-cost devices failed. The Linux Foundation's Tizen also didn’t find any takers.

China's government has promoted Linux-derived Kylin OS for locals, but it has not won much market share.

While Russia’s Astra Linux is only limited to the nation’s military.

(With inputs from agencies)