If you want to curb the development of a certain country, through technical means to restrict the implementation of "scientific and technological sanctions" can be said to be the most "cost-effective" sanctions. According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, Global Network reported: "Due to US sanctions, Google has stopped certifying the smartphones of Russian BQ company running Android management systems. The company is already testing China's Huawei's Hongmeng operating system. ”
Seeing this, some marketing numbers may have already arranged a 10,000-word long article for the Hongmeng system to go to sea, afraid that next month the Hongmeng system will have those European markets, unite Asia and Europe to point the United States, and prepare to launch Google's hometown. But before we lift the table, we have something to figure out.
First of all, we may wish to go to the website of the Russian Satellite News Agency and see what the full version of the information looks like: In addition to the content reported by the domestic media, the general manager of BQ Russia also said: "The brand's new devices will be launched without the support of Google", "All certified devices will continue to operate." New devices may have problems with the Android system", and most importantly" BQ company Hongmeng operating system of the new smartphone may be produced in the second half of 2022. ”
Seeing this, I believe that senior Android players who understand the Android system and brush the GMS suite for the AOSP firmware themselves should understand what problems BQ has encountered: Yes, their future mobile phones cannot carry GMS. After all, AOSP is an already open source mobile phone system, and anyone can freely use AOSP while complying with the open source license. The Android system is Google's, download and modify the AOSP manufacturers need to pay Google, get Android device certification before pre-installing Google Services (GMS), advertise themselves with Android system, and mark themselves "Power by Android" on the boot interface.
Coupled with the Hongmeng system we are talking about now, behind it can be either HarmonyOS 2.0 running in P50 Pro or Open Harmony (formerly known as LiteOS) for intelligent hardware for embedded systems. Even if you give the AOSP firmware a suite that is not GMS, you can say that you are not running an Android system. Coupled with Huawei's response that "there is no plan to launch a mobile phone equipped with HarmonyOS overseas", Hongmeng mobile phone obviously needs more preparation time to go to sea.
But then again, the domestic mobile phone brand is so rich in functions, why not choose to take the initiative to go to sea and conquer the overseas mobile phone market?
Where is the domestic mobile phone system shipwrecked?
In fact, the domestic mobile phone market is not without trying to go to sea, and senior rice noodles may remember a firmware type called "MIUI Polish Edition". Although the so-called "Polish version" may have more than half of the downloads in China, there is no doubt that as early as 10 years ago, domestic Android mobile phone brands had thought of launching domestic Android systems for domestic mobile phone users into overseas markets.
But unfortunately, whether it is MIUI, EMUI or the latest Color OS, OriginOS, in the overseas market can only say that the performance is flat, not to mention the system open to third-party brand mobile phones, even compared with the domestic version of the system, these overseas versions of the system are missing in function, domestic mobile phone brands want to reproduce the glory of the domestic market in the overseas market, there are obviously many problems to be solved.
The first is the issue of patents. Since patent information is not interconnected between countries, the functions that a brand can use in country A are likely to infringe the patents of other companies in country B. Copyright infringement here refers not only to patents on appearance, but also to patents related to hardware design, software interactions, and even key functions.
For example, Huawei has sued in Europe for sexual infringement of Huawei's patent rights and trademark rights, and Cisco has also sued Huawei in China and Huawei in the United States, accusing it of infringing Cisco's intellectual property rights and "even flaws are the same." Even Apple has been infringed by intellectual property rights, and the function of putting photos when setting wallpapers has been removed from the new system. Even for a long time, the patent for "integrating a fingerprint reader into the side power button of a phone" even belonged to a computer company that did not make a mobile phone in the United States.
Xiao Lei's examples are not to accuse brands of "shameless plagiarism", but to show a point: the lack of interoperability between countries makes the international transfer of patent ownership seem complicated, and the fact that a brand has a patent in China does not mean that it can use its own technology in various markets around the world. In addition, there are a large number of "patent litigation companies" in various countries in the world, which seek monetary compensation by preemptively registering patents, such as the three words "Tesla" in China, which is preemptively registered by a company, resulting in Tesla's activities in the name of "Tuosole" in the early stage of entering the Chinese market.
Before sorting out patent disputes and potential patent hidden dangers, mobile phone brands choose to "rush to sea", which is likely to lead to immeasurable legal consequences.
Secondly, even if mobile phone brands find ways to avoid all patent hidden dangers and bring a complete domestic system overseas, it is also unknown whether such a system can be recognized by overseas consumers. The well-known "Google Services" is the best example. As we just said, AOSP + Google services are the complete Android system, and where you can use the full Google service normally, no less than the core functions of the mobile phone are closely related to the software services have Google participation, such as in addition to Samsung, the vast majority of Android phones are using Google's voice assistant Google Assistant.
This not only means that overseas mobile phone brands do not need to develop a new intelligent assistant from scratch, but also means that mobile phone brands can use AI assistants trained by Google with users around the world at a lower cost, which is a more cost-effective choice. In terms of payment, mobile phone brands do not need to negotiate cooperation with banks and card issuing and settlement agencies one by one, and can directly use the Google Pay mobile wallet established by Google to achieve mobile payment at a lower cost.
Whether an authentic and innovative Chinese mobile phone system can gain the love of overseas consumers is itself an unknown. Consumers in different markets have completely different functional needs for mobile phones, and the difference in demand between them has spawned two different system branches of "hydrogen OS" and "oxygen OS" of oneplus mobile phones. Directly copying the domestic system may not be able to reproduce the domestic performance in overseas markets.
In addition, the implementation of personal data protection laws such as the GDPR has also limited certain key functions of some domestic systems, leaving foreign users without access to a full version of the domestic mobile phone system in the first place.
Instead of dragging your family with your mouth, it is better to pack lightly
Looking at it this way, the domestic mobile phone system going to sea seems to be a dead end, so the domestic mobile phone brand can only "make a small fuss" in the country? This statement is also not entirely true. Although domestic mobile phone systems are not necessarily suitable for overseas consumers, it is difficult to go to sea as a whole; but these systems choose to lighten up and conquer overseas markets in the form of services, which may be another situation.
We know that the Android system is composed of AOSP and Google services, and the long-term monopoly position has made Google services controversial. For overseas users, Google has the vast majority of user data; for mobile phone brands, Google monopolizes the entrance to mobile app distribution; and even for developers, Google monopolizes the opportunity for them to make a profit through in-app purchases. There will naturally be new challengers entering the market, and Huawei's HMS service has seized the opportunity of GMS monopoly and re-established a new set of application ecosystems outside the Google system.
Although the software is still those software, for developers, the addition of competitors means that the "ecology" of mobile phones can also enter the benign market competition, and a friendlier sharing ratio and one-stop cloud service support can also meet the diverse needs of developers, while reducing developers' dependence on specific ecosystems. In fact, HMS has also launched its own overseas program, serving more than 600 million active users in 170 countries around the world.
It is foreseeable that as long as users and brands become more and more disgusted with the monopolistic behavior of Google and GMS, the more likely it is that domestic ecological suppliers such as HMS will usher in better development prospects in the global market. When HMS can confront GMS in the global market, it is natural for domestic mobile phone operating systems to land in overseas markets.