Alibaba’s YunOS overtakes Apple’s iOS as China’s second-largest smartphone operating system

YunOS, the mobile operating system developed by Alibaba Group, is on track to corner a 14 per cent share of smartphone shipments in mainland China by the end of this year, pulling ahead of Apple’s iOS to become the second-largest operating system for that device in the market, according to analysts.

The forecasts would confirm Alibaba’s claim earlier this year that YunOS had initially passed iOS on the mainland in the three months ended March 31.

Despite the strong strides made by the Alibaba platform, Bernstein senior analyst Mark Li told the South China Morning Post that growth prospects for YunOS outside of its home market would likely be limited to “cheap or subsidised smartphones”.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Alibaba-backed Meizu, XiaoLaJiao and Doov are the top YunOS smartphone suppliers.

It estimated the total shipments of YunOS-powered smartphones this year will top 100 million units, echoing the earlier projection made by e-commerce giant Alibaba.

New York-listed Alibaba, which owns the Post, has also adapted YunOS to work as an operating system for television set-top boxes, smart home appliances, tablets, internet-connected smart TVs, smart cars and even SoftBank Group Corp’s humanoid robot called “Pepper”.