Indigenous software for phones needed

Moreover, since other foreign brands, like Samsung that has the largest share in China's phone market, also use Android, there is no foolproof safeguard against security risks for smartphone users.

According to American media reports, the National Security Agency (exposed by Edward Snowden for its global surveillance program) calls the mobile software systems, including the iPhone and Android systems, "gold mines" of data resources.

The intelligence departments of the US and the UK started working together way back in 2007 to develop applications to spy on mobile phone users' personal data, and the NSA raised the budget for the project from $204 million to $706 million. This indicates that the Android system is closely monitored by US intelligence departments. Therefore, even if Chinese civil servants switch from iPhones to other smartphones, they cannot avoid being monitored by foreign intelligence agencies, which could eventually become a security risk for the country.

Therefore, to secure its information network, China has no choice but to expedite the development of an independent software for smartphones. The security threat that iPhones (and other smartphones) pose is a warning for China to go in for more innovation. It can start doing so by spending more for the research and development of the IT sector.

The accumulation of capital and development of technologies are some of China's advantages that can help propel the proposed project to develop indigenous software for smartphones toward success.

Media reports say that of the 1.47 billion phones sold in China last year, 870 million were smartphones, and 72 percent of those smartphones were Chinese brands. Besides, 75 percent of mobile phones sold across the world are made in China and Chinese smartphones control 33.8 percent of the global market. This enormous market scale provides a solid economic base for China to develop indigenous cell phone software.

And the government should provide preferential policies for Chinese companies that work to develop indigenous software for smartphones and come up with other innovative products. Only by offering favorable policies to such companies can the government motivate them to make technological progress that could help safeguard personal and national data.

The author is a professor at the School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing.

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