Baidu-Powered Cellphones? I Don’t Think So 百度也想做手机？恐怕没戏

It seems that Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) little Robin Li is at it again trying to steal another idea from elder brother Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). This time Chinese media are reporting the chairman and founder of China’s Google knock-off is planning to enter the ultra competitive mobile OS business, going head-to-head with the likes of Google’s very popular Android system and Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) popular OS for iPhones. (Chinese article) To put it bluntly, this effort sounds almost as ludicrous as earlier reports that Chinese computer giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) was also developing an OS to use in its mobile phones. I say “almost” because at least Baidu does have some experience in software development, while Lenovo has little or none. Still, given its very late arrival to the scene, coupled with the fierce competition in this space and its poor track record at anything outside its core search business, Baidu’s attempt in this area is almost doomed to failure from the start.

Bottom line: Any attempt by Baidu to develop a mobile OS could cost it tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, and will quickly end in failure.

百度<BIDU.O>的李彦宏又在模仿老大哥谷歌<GOOG.O>的战略了。中国媒体报 道说，百度计划进军竞争超级激烈的移动操作系统领域，欲与业内巨头谷歌的Android和苹果<AAPL.O>的OS展开竞争。不客气地说，这是个荒谬的主意，几乎跟联想<0992.HK>此前表示欲自主开发手机操作系统一样荒谬。我说”几乎”，是因为至少百度在软件开发领域还有些经验，联想则近乎毫无经验可言。百度进入移动操作系统市场的时机太晚了，这个领域的竞争已经异常惨烈。而且，除了其核心的搜索领域之外，百度此前尝试的任何其他业务都乏善可陈。由此看来，百度出征移动操作系统简直就是尚未出师而败局已定。

一句话：百度开发移动操作系统的任何尝试都将白白浪费数千万甚至上亿美元的成本，并且迅速以失败告终。