Here’s a strange piece of news that goes against Google’s mantra “Don’t be evil!”. It appears that Acer had to cancel its Chinese launch of the CloudMobile smartphone with Aliyun OS because of Google. The info comes from Reuters, so it’s pretty serious. There was a local event supposed to go down and local journalists showed up to see the CloudMobile, but it was all cancelled at the last minute.
Acer CloudMobile with the Aliyun OS made by Alibaba, a local e-commerce company in China was the subject of pressure from Google, that supposedly said it will cease cooperating with Acer if they launch the product. Aliyun OS is seen as a big rival for Android in China and it debuted a year ago on a K-Touch phone. It actually looks a bit like Android, but it doesn’t use any service from Google. Frankly speaking, I can’t believe Google would do such a thing, so let’s wait on their official response to the situation.
Threatening a company with the end of your partnership simply for adopting another OS is a thing that’s unheard of in the modern world. Is this the reason why Acer was so nervous about Windows 8? Their CEO publicly criticized Microsoft Surface, saying he thinks it’s a bad idea and the statement came after they launched some crappy Acer Iconia Tab A510 Android tablets with defects. Maybe they should be bought by ASUS, as the rumors say…
