Android has had a dominant piece of the market share for quite some time, and they continue to have a bustling ecosystem of apps and see more growth in app development from the platform. When it comes to mobile OS platforms here in the U.S., there is really only Android, and iOS, when it comes to what’s available as they are the only two which have a vast library of applications with which users can get their hands on. They aren’t the only available platforms however as Microsoft has Windows, Samsung had just released their very first Tizen powered device last month, and a Finnish company, Jolla, is continuing to work on development of their own mobile OS called Sailfish.
While Android may hold a large portion of the mobile ecosystem when it comes to apps, it seems that some feel there needs to be more in the way of mobile platforms that have a significant offering in the app department. Russia for example is reportedly setting up to pay developers to migrate their apps to the Tizen and Sailfish OS platforms over from Android, which Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, refers to as a “monopoly.” The effort is an attempt to get more app development onto smaller independent platforms, and paying developers to migrate their apps over from Android seems like a good place to start.
Russia seems to want less U.S. based OS platforms for mobile devices, and both Tizen and Sailfish are developed by companies that are based outside of the U.S. themselves. How much in grants Russia is willing to give out for Android app migration is unknown at this point, but it was made clear that the grants will only be given out to Russian developers. Tizen is based off of Linux, and Sailfish is already set up to be compatible with some of the most popular Android apps so migrating apps over from Android likely wouldn’t be an entirely difficult task for the developers who may be interested, the question is whether or not developers will see any grants(given what the amounts are)as being worth their time and effort to initiate the Android migration process.