Look Out Apple And Google - The Chinese Are Coming

Reuters Business Report - REUTERS VIDEOJOURNALIST ANITA LI,

"Look out Apple and Android, now China's got its own smartphone operating system.

"According to China's state media, the Linux-based, closed source China Operating System, or 'COS', was developed independently by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Shanghai-based network technology company.

"Its aim? To break the iOS and Android duopoly over the smartphone market."It's being touted as the perfect compromise between the overly restrictive iOS on the one hand, and overly fragmented Android on the other. And on the day of its launch, it already had over 100,000 apps ready to download.

"All that sounds great, but microbloggers soon noticed the new system's user interface looked awfully familiar.

"They compared screen grabs from the promo video for COS and found the icons were a lot like those used on HTC devices. The phones in the video were also HTC.

"Some were skeptical about the 100,000 applications. This user says, "did people develop the apps first and then wait for COS to launch?"

"Others have wondered: it looks like Android, it's compatible with Android, could it actually be a modified Android system?

"So, now people are suggesting that COS might stand for "Copied Other System".

"Like every other OS, the development is just the starting point of a long journey to gain traction.

"And judging from the Weibo reaction, Apple and Google don't have to lose too much sleep just yet.

"This is Anita Li, your China Weibo watcher."