China should therefore, realize the disadvantages of being over-dependent on foreign operating systems. China's "physical separation" arrangement may be effective against intrusion, but it causes inconvenience by blocking necessary software updates on computers.

China has no computer operating system of its own with full intellectual property rights. Its operating systems, like Red Flag Linux, have been developed on open-source cores offered by foreign software makers that come with set rules. The same applies to other intelligent terminals, too. China is the world's biggest producer of intelligent terminals like smartphones, tablets, and even smart TV sets and wearable intelligent devices. But most of them run on one of the three operating systems: iOS of Apple, Windows of Microsoft, and Android of Google.

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In a recent interview, Ni Guangnan, an academic with the China Academy of Engineering, talked about two negatives of China's intelligent terminal production: first, China gets a very small share of the profits for lack of IPR, and, second, security of its user data cannot be guaranteed because of the foreign operating systems. But China is in a long way from developing a totally new operating system, which needs an efficient and reliable core, large numbers of drivers, and numerous changes to suit the advancement in hardware. In fact, the cost may be too high for China's IT industry to afford.

Besides, even if China succeeded in developing an advanced operating system, it might end up being used mostly by government agencies rather than by individuals.

A commercially successful operating system needs the support of compatible hardware. Only if a user can conveniently run his/her software on a reliable computer can he/she choose the operating system. The global monopoly of Windows, which lasted decades, has much to do with the popularization of PCs; iOS also owes its rise over the past few years to the revolutionary Apple products such as iPad, iPhone and Macbook. Therefore, it won't be easy for China to develop a completely new operating system and compete for a big slice of the market, especially because it has to master the application of IT as well as develop a foolproof marketing strategy.

Although earlier this year the Chinese Academy of Sciences said it had developed a new system for smartphones, PCs and tablets, its painstaking efforts show how difficult it is to challenge the three global IT giants.

But China has to ease, if not totally end, its reliance on foreign operating systems by developing one indigenously even if it cannot immediately compete for a share of the global market.

The author is a writer with China Daily.

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