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China Mobile has a custom build of Android on devices they call OPhones and their custom platform – again, based on Android – is named the Open Mobile System. But in a recent press release, the carrier announced that their Android Phones will have support for Windows Mobile API.
What in the… ??? Here is the press release:
BEIJING, Feb 02, 2010 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) —
China Mobile Ltd. (SEHK: 0941; NYSE: CHL) has upgraded its OMS (Open Mobile System) to 2.0 version, which is compatible with technologies such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), Windows Mobile
API, and voice recognition and generation.OMS is a proprietary smartphone operating system developed by China Mobile using source codes of Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating)’s Android platform. It is regarded as a secondary development on the basis of Android. Mobile phones based on OMS are called OPhones.
Android has had many different versions after it was created in 2008. As a result, OMS has been upgrading itself since its release, trying to catch up the pace of Android.
Because Android’s codes are open to all developers, the R&D team of OMS embedded China Mobile’s services like instant messaging and messengers client Fetion into OMS while making changes to Android.
The latest version of OMS is able to provide support for the next-generation mobile Internet and communications technologies and stronger and more efficient technology R&D for family services.
Nobody knows what the heck that really means, but most people are suggesting that it will act as an emulator of sorts so that Android can run Windows Mobile apps from within an app. Or something. Who really knows but this will be interesting to follow.
[Via MobileTechWorld]
any chance it is just a miss use of ‘windows’ and refers to the Mono library that is being worked on? But a Wine like layer would be neat.
Ironic that OMS is labeled “Open Mobile System” but in the next sentence is called proprietary.
If it is the Mono interop layer, it would seem that there are multiple attempts going on. This is the 3rd that I’ve heard of.
In any case, I can’t wait until I can finally write apps in C#.
The press release says that Android 2.0 already supports WM APIs, not that they are going to add them. So I think this pretty clearly refers to ActiveSync.
Jeez, this would be like hitching your Maserati to a mule.
Logotic… your analogy makes no sense
His analogy makes perfect sense. Wimo = mule.
if they can do it, I’ll snap it up, Win Mo may be dated compared the new kids IPhone OS and Android (in a way I think it is unfair to brand it a mule), yet in terms of “real” productivity and specialist apps, the newer kids doesn’t even come close, try to search for an Android or IPhone app that does Mass spectroscopic fragments predictions, or molecular biology, or hell, even more common user specialist apps such as data encryption, none exist. Win Mo still fills a really important niche for power users.