BharOS India’s very first OS

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BharOS indians very first OS

BharOS India’s very first OS

Incubated at IIT-Madras, JandK Operations Pvt. Ltd. created BharOS, India’s first indigenous mobile phone operating system, and is now in talks with government agencies and private sector businesses that demand the highest standards of privacy and security. There are both government and private companies represented here.

Although many questions remain unanswered about BharOS and whether or not it can become a credible competitor to Android, it is clear that India is following China’s lead in developing a homegrown tech ecosystem to fuel economic growth. We demonstrate how India’s efforts to establish its own operating system could help check Big Tech even if the operating system is not successful in challenging the Google-Apple duopoly in the mobile environment. This remains true even if the BharOS can’t hold its own against Google and Apple.

When compared to iOS and Android, BharOS shares a lot of similarities. However, BharOS appears to be less of an alternative and more of a fork version of Android, despite the fact that there is little information about BharOS and its primary capabilities that is readily available to the public.

Separating Android into two distinct OSes and creating a brand-new OS from scratch are two very different things. Forking allows a developer to make a copy of the source code of an existing program, application, or operating system without violating any copyright laws and launch a new project. Since its inception in 2008, Android has been developed by Google as an open-source project. Since the source code is publicly available, anyone can use it, tweak it, and create their own version of the program. Amazon’s Fire OS, for instance, is a modified version of Google’s Android.

In contrast, a forked version can’t use Google services like the Play Store, from which the vast majority of Android users get the millions of apps they use every day. For instance, the Amazon Appstore is an integral part of the Fire OS.

Android-iOS dominance persists BharOS

However, it could be a Herculean task for a company to develop an entirely new operating system from scratch and produce a credible alternative to Android or iOS. It requires an infinite amount of resources and significant help from the developer community to create a new operating system from scratch. The iPhone’s meteoric rise to the top of the mobile market may have been aided by the introduction of the App Store in 2008. Apps for the iPhone were quickly adopted by the general public due to the device’s widespread popularity and the store’s streamlined, user-friendly interface.

Companies like Uber and Spotify were launched all over the world as a direct result of the App Store’s meteoric rise in popularity. Apple didn’t invent the App Store, but the company did bring together all of the app developers under one roof, which was a crucial step in the evolution of the mobile ecosystem as we know it today. Google, like many other companies, has jumped on the app bandwagon, though, unlike Apple, it has allowed for both third-party app stores and sideloading. Android has become the most popular mobile OS by far, commanding a 71.8% share of the market at present.

Users of both Android and iOS have been restricted to their respective ecosystems, which can be a drawback despite the benefits each platform offers. The market for mobile devices is currently controlled by only two companies due to the lack of a third or fourth mobile operating system.

Microsoft, BlackBerry, and even Samsung have all made attempts to create mobile operating systems that are competitive with Android and iOS. But nobody has been able to take control of our digital lives the way that Apple and Google have. In Microsoft’s case, the Windows Phone operating system was not only groundbreaking but also years ahead of its time. The Windows Phone OS ultimately failed spectacularly because, unlike Android, it failed to attract third-party developers.

India’s tech ecosystem won’t help with apps

In the last few years, India has made great strides in developing its technological infrastructure. However, it is much smaller than China and has thus been unable to produce serious rivals to Internet behemoths like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. However, unlike China, where a steady stream of apps from local developers is guaranteed on its many Android app stores, India would not be able to do so even if it were to establish an alternative to Android and provide its own App Store.

Gmail is the most popular email service in India; if the country’s official app store didn’t offer access to Google’s suite of services, no one would download and install the Indian OS. Also, for the aforementioned reasons, it’s unlikely that Google or Meta will bring their own first-party apps over to a localized version of the App Store.

Getting smartphone manufacturers to produce BharOS-compatible devices is another obstacle India will have to overcome. It may not be easy to get major phone brands, especially local ones, on board, despite the fact that no official announcement has been made on the list of phone companies going to launch devices using BharOS.

Given the current state of the tech ecosystem, which is so intertwined with multiple stakeholders, including chip makers and software providers, no one would be willing to take the risk of bringing a phone with a completely new operating system to market unless the Indian government funded the project and heavily subscribed the cost of the handset. Another factor working against the development of an Indian operating system is the fact that the vast majority of Android phones sold in India are made by Chinese companies that have no incentive to switch to an Indian operating system.


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