China’s Baidu, their in-country search engine has announced a new android based OS called Baidu Yi. Baidu intends to get rid of all currently in-use google apps and replace them with their own Baidu branded services.
Baidu also intends to develop their own maps to compete with Google Places, an ebook reader like on in use on Apple’s i-books and a music player(itunes?). With a billion Chinese, this move cannot be a simple one and Google must feel the pinch. Lets see if this one comes with lawsuits. The Baidu Yi OS was announced in the Baidu world Event in Beijing. Previously the search services have been used to replace Google search on android devices sold in China.
Of all Android devices to access Google’s App Market over the past two weeks, half are still running last summer’s Android 2.2 Froyo and only 30 percent are using Google’s latest smartphone release, Android 2.3 Gingerbread. More than 16 percent are running a build older than Froyo, preventing them from being able to run modern apps.
