Domestic mobile operating systems can be divided by types of consumers
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The Ministry of Digital Development is discussing with business the possibility of dividing domestic mobile operating systems (OS) into segments for different categories of consumers. So, Aurora from Rostelecom will be intended for the corporate and public sector, while citizens will be offered devices on the Rosa OS or its analogues. In parallel, the authorities are trying to convince companies to still create a consortium to develop an analogue of Android based on open source. To encourage developers to create applications for Russian operating systems, device manufacturers talk about the need for state subsidies. Experts, on the other hand, believe that, first of all, the market needs competitive equipment, and the OS will already apply to it.
Kommersant’s sources in the electronics market said that in mid-June a meeting was held at the Ministry of Digital Development with software developers and electronics manufacturers to develop a mobile ecosystem in the Russian Federation. One of the participants says that among the possible scenarios, the “segmentation” of domestic OS by types of consumers was discussed. So, for regulated markets (corporate and public sectors), it is possible to make Aurora OS (owned by Rostelecom) a priority, and for consumer choose Rosa OS (developed by NTC IT ROSA LLC, owned by Alternativa Capital LLC, controlled by the ex-minister links to Leonid Reiman) or its analogues.
It is also proposed to form a target segment of users of secure mobile devices based on the Aurora OS, says another interlocutor: “We are talking about transferring civil servants to these mobile phones.” According to manufacturers, he says, the number of such users is up to 30 million people. Aurora OS is installed on smartphones and tablets of a number of Russian companies, including Yadro, F+ Tech, Aquarius, Baiterg, Scale Research Institute (part of Rostec) and QTech.
Market participants, for their part, suggested considering the possibility of co-financing developers of applications for Russian operating systems from the state budget, providing developers of the OS themselves with free porting to mobile devices and working out the issue of introducing exclusive public services and services exclusively to Russian operating systems (access to electronic documents, certain types of public services etc.), says one of the meeting participants.
The project to create a national mobile ecosystem was proposed by Rostelecom in August 2022. According to the company’s estimates, by 2030, about 70 million devices based on the Aurora OS can be sold. Their sales in Rostelecom were estimated at 480 billion rubles. (see Kommersant of November 17). Later, the authorities proposed creating a Russian analogue of Android for the consumer sector based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) open source code, and supplying devices based on the Aurora OS to the public sector.
One of the interlocutors who participated in the meeting said that the creation of a Russian analogue of Android “is still being discussed, but the membership of the consortium of developers that the authorities want to create for this has not yet been formed.” An interlocutor in the government confirmed to Kommersant that “the project is still relevant, the composition of the consortium is being formed.” Among the potential developers, Sberbank, VK, Yandex, and others were previously named (see Kommersant of December 30). Rostelecom declined to comment, STC IT ROSA and the Ministry of Digital Development did not respond to Kommersant.
To encourage application developers to make software for the Aurora and Rosa OS, co-financing will not be enough, says Alexei Smirnov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Basalt SPO: there is no mass audience, large developers should see the prospect of developing the market, but subsidies can serve as a signal for them.”
Also, Mr. Smirnov clarifies, if the corporate and public sectors can be forced to switch to a domestic OS, then in the consumer sector it is necessary to provide not only an ecosystem of application software, but also domestic smartphones that are competitive in price and characteristics: “Therefore, whoever is there, Rosa or its equivalent, success in such a market will be difficult to achieve.
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