Google arm-twists Acer into Dropping Alibaba’s operating system

Posted by Dustin Coleman on September 14, 2012 0 Comment

China’s Alibaba group has levelled serious allegations against search engine Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG).

According to a report by Dow Jones, Google forced computer maker Acer to stop using Alibaba’s mobile operating system Aliyun, or face the threat of having its support to Android used by Acer, being withdrawn.

Acer, which was planning to launch a smartphone running on Aliyun decided to cancel the event on pressure from Google, Dow Jones said quoting Acer.

Acer told the newswire agency that it would continue to hold talks with Google and it was still optimistic that it could use Alibaba’s software.

CNET, which followed up the story, spoke to Alibaba which admitted that Google had notified Acer that it would stop their partnership if Acer supports Aliyun.

“Our partner was notified by Google that if the product runs Aliyun OS, Google will terminate its Android-related cooperation and other technology licensing with our partner,” Alibaba told CNET in an e-mailed statement.

“We respect and understand our partner’s decision to postpone the introduction of the phone, and are dismayed by the impact this dispute has had on our partner.”

Google has a dominant share of the market in the smartphone segment with a majority of smartphones running on Android, which is cheaper and also easier to operate. With the exception of Apple, Research in Motion and Nokia most other handsets run on Android. In emerging markets handsets use Android as it is hassle-free and easy to install and run.

For china’s Alibaba, it made sense to tie up with Taiwan-based Acer to launch its own mobile operating system.