The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommended manufacturers of devices on the Aurora OS to go retail

The Ministry of Industry and Trade suggested that manufacturers of smartphones and tablets develop a schedule for porting the Aurora OS from Rostelecom to their devices and start selling them in the consumer segment. Also, the ministry banned employees from using tablets on any OS other than Aurora for work purposes. Market participants note that in the consumer segment, devices based on the Aurora OS will not be able to compete with Chinese counterparts due to the high cost and lack of necessary programs, and it will take about two to three more years to adapt the software.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the minutes of the meeting of the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak with Russian manufacturers of electronics and mobile operating systems dated June 13. In it, the ministry recommends domestic manufacturers of smartphones and tablets to start selling devices on the Aurora OS in the consumer segment. The meeting was attended by Aquarius, ByteErg, Azimuth, Yadro, F+Tech, Aurora OS developer Open Mobile Platform (OMP, owned by Rostelecom) and others. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade asked manufacturers to prepare a schedule for porting the OS “Aurora” on your devices.

The ministry also wants to prohibit its employees from using tablets from Apple and other foreign manufacturers for work purposes, replacing them with devices on the Aurora OS. In early July, the Ministry of Industry and Trade already banned the use of Apple smartphones by employees (see Kommersant of July 5). In the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Azimuth, Aquarius, F + Tech, FGBU VNIIR did not answer “Kommersant”. Yadro and WMD declined to comment.

At the end of 2022, Rostelecom proposed to the government a strategy for developing the national mobile ecosystem, which involves the production and sale of 70 million devices on the Aurora OS by 2030 in the consumer, government and commercial sectors. The operator estimated the implementation of the strategy at 480 billion rubles. (see Kommersant of November 17). It also assumed a reduction in the import of foreign devices, subsidizing the development of software for the Aurora OS, and others. The Ministry of Digital Development, in turn, proposed to supply devices on the Aurora only to the public sector (see Kommersant of December 30).

An interlocutor of Kommersant among electronics manufacturers believes that devices based on the Aurora OS can only be in demand in the public sector or in companies with state participation: “There is no motivation for an ordinary user to leave the usual Android or iOS, even if a wide range of apps that don’t exist. According to him, device manufacturers are now experiencing problems with porting the Aurora OS: “The implementation of this can take up to six months, and any hardware changes require a new firmware, which requires a new porting procedure.”

The high price will also become a negative factor for devices on Aurora OS, the chairman of the board of directors of Basalt SPO Alexey Smirnov considers. Now the average cost of one device on the Russian OS is about 50-60 thousand rubles, which is much more expensive than Chinese counterparts, “whereas Russian gadgets are technically weaker,” he notes.

Also, Mr. Smirnov clarifies, according to the law, when selling smartphones or tablets to an individual in the Russian Federation, Russian software must be pre-installed on the device, including the RuStore application store, Yandex services, State Services, etc., but most of mandatory programs does not work on the Aurora OS: “It will take about two to three more years to create a full-fledged ecosystem of application software for the Aurora OS.”

OS “Aurora” was created as a secure corporate solution and at the moment, in principle, is not ready to become a consumer one, emphasizes the interlocutor of “Kommersant” among device manufacturers: “If the developer tries to adapt it to the retail market, then the results can be judged not sooner than three to five years. By this time, most likely, different mobile environments will be formed – conditionally corporate and mass market. In his opinion, this is the most logical development scenario.

Timofey Kornev