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Google accused of blocking Alibaba-powered smartphone launch event

Chinese firm Alibaba has reportedly accused Google of blocking the launch of a smartphone powered by its operating system.

London: Chinese firm Alibaba has reportedly accused Google of blocking the launch of a smartphone powered by its operating system.
Journalists were invited to an event to see a new handset from Taiwan``s Acer running on Alibaba`s Aliyun software. However, on arrival the writers were told the launch had been cancelled, the BBC reports. Alibaba later issued a statement accusing Google, manufacturer of rival Android system, of threatening Acer it would cancel its own links to the firm, the report said. “Our partner received notification from Google that if the new product with Aliyun went ahead, Google would terminate Android product cooperation and related technical authorisation with Acer,” Alibaba``s Cloud Computing unit said. According to the report, like Android, the Aliyun system is based on the Linux kernel. It was launched in July last year as part of a strategy to ensure users would continue to shop via the firm`s e-commerce system in light of the fact many users were spending more time on their mobile devices than PCs, the report said. ANI