MS plans response to HP's webOS ... in 2013

There may as well be a long delay previously we see real results of a rumoured project at Motorola Mobility, with the firm reported to be developing its own web-based mobile OS. Like webOS and Chrome OS, this is unlikely to be targeting the same role as Android, of which Motorola is an avid supporter.

Instead, it will focus on the new wave of devices that are almost absolutely geared to cloud services and streamed content, with stripped-down operating systems based on the browser.

According to sources who spoke to Information Week, Motorola has hired engineers from Apple and Adobe to head up its project, and the firm did not deny the initiative, although it insisted it remained "committed to Android as an operating system".

The headlines are sure to assume a new OS

Many of the headlines are sure to assume a new OS would in the end be an alternative to Android, which has issues just as fragmentation and over-control by Google. But to tell the truth, a new-style browser-as-OS is a far more likely aim, and not necessarily incompatible with Android support.

However, differentiation is not necessarily the issue with Android, given that Motorola has put considerable effort into creating its own overlay - Motoblur - and integrating non-Google components, including the Baidu search engine, for some carriers. Far more serious is whether Android will continue to meet the needs of OEMs and operators when mobile cloud services become mainstream, although that will take years.

Mobile web software platform of its own is Baidu

Also said to be considering a mobile web software platform of its own is Baidu. The UK Financial Times reported that the company was creating a "light operating system". This would not see the light of day for three to five years, according to sources, when all is said and done is likely to be targeting the new browser/OS wave too, or rather than seeking to outdo Android - in spite of Google's challenges in Baidu's native China.

It seems the reports come from a project Baidu has described earlier: to put the search box at the heart of the user interface. CEO Robin Li said: "Hereafter, one second, you turn on the device, and you can start using the box. That's our mission for the future of the internet." Baidu has already integrated an apps engine with its search facility so that applications can be launched directly from the search box.

The company

The company was working very closely with Symbian, even though that is likely to change now. Last June, Baidu formed a joint venture with the Symbian Foundation to develop and promote its concept of "box computing". The new initiative, the Box Computing Joint Laboratory, hopes to draw in other vendors and carriers, to support Baidu's platform, originally unveiled the previous summer.

Box Computing was launched on the PC, allowing users to bypass the notebook's usual boot-up processes and access the web and key applications directly from the search box with "instant-on". The aim of the Symbian Alliance was to bring the same capability to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices and the project has presumably given rise to the new reports of a mobile OS.

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