Google china to launch Tabas New Mobile OS

KaiFu Lee (the former president of Google China operation). is set to launch a new mobile operating system in the next few weeks called Tapas according to The Wall Street Journal. Its based on Google open source Android operating system, but is tailored for the Chinese market with additional software that can identify which city a person is calling from, the ability to sync contacts with Chinese social networks, a music player that goes out to the internet and grabs the lyrics to the song currently playing and then displays said lyrics on screen, as well as an eBook reader. Hardware partners that have committed to launching Tapas based devices are Sharp, Haier and Tianyu.

This is an exciting time for China who is now trying to break through the stigma that they are doing nothing but copying products and services from the west, but instead trying to create solutions tailored specifically for a market of over 1 billion people who will soon be demanding smartphones and the ability to browse the mobile web at speeds we have been enjoying in Europe and America for quite some time. Whether or not Tapas takes off is debatable.

[source:WSJ]