Google forces Acer to cancel non-Android smartphone launch

MOBILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google reportedly forced Acer to cancel a smartphone launch event in China yesterday because the handset wasn't running its Android operating system.

Acer was planning to launch the Acer Cloudmobile A800 running Alibaba's Aliyun operating system. However, Reuters reports that Google threw its toys out of the pram and pulled the plug on the Chinese launch by threatening to pull Android support from Acer devices.

According to reports journalists had gathered for the event but were told they were not allowed to enter the venue, with Alibaba citing "internal issues".

However, the Alibaba cloud computing unit has now spoken out about Google's action. It said in a statement, "Our partner [Acer] received notification from Google that if the new product launch with Aliyun went ahead, 'Google would terminate Android product cooperation and related technical authorization with Acer.'"

Alibaba's operating system is seen as an equal to the Android operating system in China, and this report apparently shows the lengths to which Google will go to try to kill competition.

Neither Acer nor Google was available for comment at the time of publication, and reportedly they are refusing to comment. µ