Alibaba grows its YunOS as the go-to IoT platform

At a cloud-computing conference held in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba has announced a further step of its YunOS – hardware giant HP and Intel will launch a tablet device running the operating system, targeting the education market. Also, Japanese electronics brand Sharp and its parent company manufacturer Hon Hai have signed up a partnership with Alibaba to install YunOS in their smart TVs. 

This has taken the OS into a broader market audiences.

The company has already started its IoT layout with the YunOS in its home country, China. More than ten million connected TVs and set-up TV boxes made by Chinese brand Lenovo and Skyworth have been sold with YunOS installed. More, connected kitchen ventilation fans from Haier and smart refrigerators from Midea have also shipped with the OS. 

According to an annual letter to the Alibaba’s shareholders written by Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder and chairman, Alibaba has been investing heavily on its cloud computing service, Alibaba Cloud because he thinks that e-commerce might soon become a traditional business. The company’s future plan will focus on how to leverage its commercial ecosystem and provide an environment for new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, VR and AR and the Internet of Things. And the YunOS will be their best army to fight the IoT war. 

Besides smart home devices, smartphones and tablets, devices like Japanese SoftBank’s robot Pepper and SAIC Motor’s car are also running the YunOS. The operating system has now working on 15 types of connected hardware, including smartphones, wearables, navigation systems, medical equipments, game consoles and smart home devices. 

YunOS’s biggest advantage to function cross-device is its cloud-based focus. Most widely used smartphone operating systems rely on CPUs and memory installed in the device to run applications and store data. However, YunOS built in devices work as nodes on a network – they communicate information and run applications in the cloud. 

This architecture difference positions YunOS as a fundamental software and enables the operating system to easily work on IoT devices, connected automobiles or smart TVs. 

With the booming IoT industry, Alibaba plans to develop the YunOS as a go-to platform for most connected devices in China.