The iOS may be losing to Alibaba's YunOS as the second-largest mobile operating system for smartphones in China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Apple's iOS is in danger of being surpassed by Alibaba's YunOS as the top mobile operating system for smartphones.
According to the South China Morning Post, YunOS is poised to take 14 percent of smartphone shipments in mainland China in 2016. It will elbow out Apple's iOS as the second-largest mobile OS in the country, next to Android.
YunOS, however, is expected to be limited to "cheap or subsidised smartphones" when it comes to expanding outside its home market, said Bernstein senior analyst Mark Li in an interview with the SCMP.
YunOS, which was developed by Alibaba subsidiary AliCloud, was released in China in 2011. Since then, the adoption of the OS has expanded to Alibaba's TV set-top boxes, tablets, smart TVs and cars, and home appliances.
Japanese maker SoftBank Group is also using YunOS for Pepper, its humanoid robot.
Earlier, Alibaba projected that YunOS-enabled smartphones would top 100 million units. This was echoed by Strategy Analytics, which reported that XiaoLaJiao, Meizu and Doov are the top suppliers of smartphones running on YunOS.
For adoption to continue its pace, Alibaba must focus on subsidies. This was pointed out by Bernstein, which said that manufacturers are motivated to integrate Alibaba's OS into their smartphone models when subsidies are present.
"Set-top box makers on the mainland, for example, reportedly receive from 20 to 60 yuan per box as a subsidy to encourage the adoption of YunOS," wrote CNBC.
This figure becomes significant when vendors are competing for "razor-thin margins," said Li via CNBC.
"The low price afforded by YunOS smartphones has made these devices gain most of their users across the mainland's lower tier cities," CNBC wrote.
Meanwhile, the strong pull of Google's Android remains a tough hurdle against YunOS's growth. In China, a majority of smartphone users are relying on this ubiquitous OS.
