CEC launches self-developed OS Kylin V10

New system compatible with more than 10,000 hardware and software products

China's self-developed software operating system has entered a new phase of development after China Electronics Corp's launching of Kylin V10, industry experts said on Tuesday.

CEC, the country's largest State-owned comprehensive electronic information enterprise group, said that it has launched a new generation of the Kylin V10 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Developed by Kylin Software, a unit under CEC, the Kylin V10 supports Google's Android ecosystem and features a better user experience, with its security level ranking the best in the country, said Kong Jinzhu, executive president of Kylin Software.

The new operating system is compatible with more than 10,000 hardware and software products, including central processing units, firmware, cloud platforms and big data produced by over 1,000 domestic and foreign enterprises, said Kong.

The company said it will develop products that mainly include server operating systems, desktop operating systems and embedded operating systems by combining artificial intelligence, mobile computing and cloud interconnection technologies.

Founded in March, Kylin Software is an integration of China Standard Software and Tianjin Kylin Information-two of China's major software developers, which are affiliates of CEC. CEC said in an earlier interview that it will invest tens of billions of yuan and nurture an elite team of over 10,000 researchers to develop a domestic operating system in the next five years.

Share prices of homegrown operating system companies soared on Tuesday. China National Software &Service Co Ltd saw its shares rise by 3.92 percent to 111.5 yuan ($16.1) on the Shanghai bourse, while the shares of Qingdao Eastsoft Communication Technology Co Ltd rose by the daily 10-percent limit to 23.05 yuan.

"The operating system is the core technology in the whole information security sector," said Ni Guangnan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, adding that the country's operating system has made progress by leaps and bounds after years of development.

Ni said more efforts are needed to accelerate the independent innovations in core technologies of domestic information technology industry. "However, it takes a long time and great efforts to build a technological system and break the monopoly of developed countries in the high-tech sector."

The industry experts said domestic enterprises and public institutions have not widely adopted the new operating system, and it will be some time before it is used on a large scale.

Ni expressed confidence in the country's network and information industry.

China's software operating system industry is currently dominated by foreign labels, such as Microsoft's Windows, Google's Android and Apple's Mac OS.

In addition, Huawei Technologies Co has developed its in-house operating system Harmony, and has been working hard on promoting its own mobile ecosystem Huawei Mobile Services, better known as HMS.

HMS was designed to replace the Google Mobile Service after the US government banned Huawei from using Google products and services in its mobile devices. The company said the number of integrated HMS core applications in the world has exceeded 81,000.

Gao Dan, general manager of software and information services research center under CCID Consulting, said the market share of China's self-developed operating system industry has risen from 1.6 percent in 2014 to 15.8 percent in 2019.

Gao said the proportion of homegrown operating systems will continue to increase dramatically. "The operating system will upgrade and integrate with emerging technologies, including cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. Moreover, the security of the operating system will become more important," Gao said.