E-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said Thursday that the first mobile phone using an Alibaba-developed operating system will go on sale in China at the end of the month, kicking off competition with Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Within months, Alibaba Group unit Alibaba Cloud Computing said in a statement, the operating system, Aliyun OS, will be supporting other devices, such as tablets and larger-screen phones. It added that Aliyun is "fully compatible" with applications that run on Google's Android system.
This seems to mark a new direction for Alibaba Group, a company that has made software before but is best known for operating online-commerce websites. Its flagship company is Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com Ltd., which links small manufacturers with buyers around the world.
The first phone using the operating system will be made by Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co., known for its K-Touch handset brand, Tianyu Chairwoman Rong Xiuli said at a briefing. It will sell for 2,680 yuan (US$416). Alibaba said it is talking to other makers about preinstalling the software on their phones.
Beijing Tianyu will launch a tablet using the operating system this year, said Wang Jian, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing, and another phone using the software will be available "soon."
The first phone will use a chipset from Nvidia Corp., but Alibaba is talking with Qualcomm Inc. about its offering a compatible chipset, Mr. Wang said.
Many software and phone makers have offered their own operating systems partly to drive purchases of applications that work on those systems. Alibaba could use its operating system to promote apps for online commerce, potentially boosting other Alibaba Group units such as Alibaba.com and consumer-focused commerce websites Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall.
Alibaba's operating system makes use of "cloud-based" services, which are based on a remote server instead of being downloading to the phone. These will include software applications, e-mail, mapping and data storage, Alibaba said.
Top Chinese search provider Baidu Inc. has hinted it could be developing a mobile operating system. Baidu says it aims to develop software that lets users of devices like smartphones perform a wide range of online activities by typing commands into a search box.
