F+ tech tunes in to Aurora – Kommersant

The Russian electronics manufacturer F+ tech has acquired two software developers: for cross-platform applications and IT infrastructure management systems. With their help, the company expects to start custom development and adaptation of applications for Russian mobile operating systems, including Aurora. Market participants believe that “sooner or later, all domestic companies will have to adapt their applications to Russian operating systems,” so the demand for custom development may be high.

Kommersant discovered in SPARK-Interfax information that F + tech (LLC F-plus Equipment and Development) on April 10 bought the Kaliningrad LLC Avroid, which, according to its own data, develops software for desktop and mobile operating systems (Android, iOS, Russian Avrora, Rosa, Red OS, Astra Linux, etc.), as well as Hyperus LLC, which develops IT infrastructure management systems.

In F + tech, Kommersant explained that they plan to adapt mobile applications for Aurora and other Russian operating systems, as well as independently port them to their devices. This includes custom development. In April, the company announced the start of assembling F + tech smartphones and tablets for the corporate and public sector on this operating system (see Kommersant dated April 17). “We expect that the development process management will be able to accelerate the expansion of the application pool for this OS, since now there is not enough software on Aurora,” the company explained.

Now, for example, only about a hundred applications have been adapted for Aurora, says a Kommersant source in the IT market. The fact that there are not enough full-fledged applications is also evidenced by the fact that the owner of the Open Mobile Platform (OMP) OS, as TASS reported on April 3, began to independently add web versions of Yandex and Sberbank services to its application store. , VTB, etc. OMP General Director Pavel Eiges refrained from commenting.

Since the beginning of the year, Russian IT companies have been experiencing a shortage of specialists capable of writing applications for Aurora and other Russian operating systems. In February, the number of vacancies for Android and iOS app developers fell by 19% and 20%, while the demand for Aurora developers grew by 53% yoy (see Kommersant on February 9).

“The purchase of two companies speaks of the serious attitude of F + tech to mobile topics: this is a step from the release of iron to the creation of an ecosystem,” says Alexander Kalinin, co-founder of SMI-Holding. In his opinion, if necessary, developers are able to adapt applications for the Aurora OS, but the software will not be released under the F + tech brand, so other companies may be interested in purchasing a license.

Roman Mylitsyn, head of advanced research and special projects at Astra Group, notes that the group is already cooperating with F + tech as part of the Ready for Astra Linux technological cooperation program to integrate a wide range of products, from printers and MFPs to tablets and smartphones, with Astra OS. “Sooner or later, all Russian companies will have to adapt their applications to Russian operating systems,” says Valentin Makarov, head of NP Russoft. In his opinion, the new structure of F + tech will be able to take “one of the key roles in adapting applications both for the Aurora OS and for other Russian solutions.”

Timofey Kornev