Media Holding Kalinin will create an OS based on Android and Esim Module
The former head of the NKK and Aquarius intends to create its own mobile operating system (OS) and desktop based on the Media Holding and Communigate Pro for the consumer segment for three years. Despite the interest of market participants, this segment is already an excess of domestic offers, and the cost of only the computer version of the system can require several billion rubles and up to five years of development. Experts emphasize that in Android systems there are also legal risks.
Media Holding Alexander Kalinin, ex-heads of the NKK and Aquarius, intends to create its own ESIM module, as well as its own OS based on Android (Android Open Source Project), he stated this In an interview with Kommersant. Also, another company Mr. Kalinin, Communigate Pro (makes an analogue of Microsoft Exchange), will create a computer OS for three years, he said. Alexander Kalinin did not disclose the details of the projects, as well as their investments, but said that the systems are planned for the consumer market, and servers with data will be stored in the Russian Federation.
According to the general director of the OMP Pavel Eiges (develops Aurora, belongs to Rostelecom), the annual demand for corporate smartphones in the Russian Federation is about 200 thousand devices and only 35% of them on the Russian OS. At the end of 2023, Rostelecom asked the Ministry of Construction to check the legitimacy of the inclusion in the register of domestic software “Red Soft” – the Red -OS Mobile System, operating on the basis of the Android open code (see “Kommersant” of November 22, 2023).
Pavel Eiges looks skeptical of the possible appearance of a new mobile OS based on Android. According to him, although such systems are now recognized as domestic, the OS based on Android has the same risks as foreign proprietary products, since the development of Android Open Source Project is carried out single -handed by Google, and the open license of Apache 2.0 is chosen to facilitate the distribution of this code to manufacturers of devices.
With interest at the emergence of a new player in the OS market, the developer and manufacturer of the electronics FPLUS are looking at the OS market. However, he says, the company expects an active advancement of its system in the market and the development of additional applications. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor among program developers, Minzifra does not yet plan to limit the market even when similar developments appear: they consider the emergence of new OS as “internal competition”, he says. However, the interlocutor adds, mainly Russian developments based on Android are made without applied software and applications, and for a stable and popular OS, a staff of programmers and system architects, which are few in the Russian Federation. The mincifers did not respond to the request of Kommersant.
A lot of OS appeared on the Russian market, which is why it is more difficult for the customer to make a choice, the interlocutor of Kommersant continues in the industry. “At the same time, each individual system requires large resources to achieve and maintain at least basic functionality,” he says.
More than eight mobile systems have already appeared on the Russian mobile OS market, including Red OS M, Kaspersky OS, NTC Rosa, etc., at the beginning of 2024, the former company Alexander Kalinin Aquarius also began the development of its mobile system (see Kommersant on February 12, 2024). The interlocutor “Kommersant” adds that the business model of the operating system is also unclear, as Google earns on Android due to advertising in the search engine, and Apple due to the sale of its content and expensive devices. “How another assembly on the basis of someone else’s source code will pay for itself is a very big question,” he says.
The creation of a competitive desktop (computer) OS is a project worth from hundreds of millions to several billion rubles and for a period of two to five years, depending on the scale, safety and compatibility requirements with applied software, emphasizes the Director General of the NTC Rosa Oleg Karpitsky. “Therefore, the development of dozens of similar projects in parallel is not always rational,” he said.
