Russia Eyes Sailfish OS To Loosen Death Grip From Apple iOS, Google Android

Like China, officials in Russia aren't happy that so much of the nation's technology is reliant on software that originates from the United States. In an effort to change that, the country's minister for communications and mass media, Nikolai Nikiforov, reportedly announced plans to develop a brand new mobile operating system.

The mobile OS will be based on Jolla's open-source Sailfish OS. At present, Sailfish OS is only installed on 0.5 percent of devices in Russia. Meanwhile, Android enjoys an 81 percent market share while iOS claims another 15 percent. That equates to Android or iOS being installed on 9.6 out of every 10 devices in Russia, or nearly all of them.

Nikiforov knows he faces a huge uphill battle and that chipping away at the market shared owned by Android and iOS will take time. However, he hopes that by 2025 the use of non-Russian mobile OSes will drop to 50 percent.

Why bother? Russia likely fears that having so much software tied to the U.S. makes it susceptible to spy efforts, especially in the wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden blowing the whistle on the U.S. governments extensive spy program.

Looking even further than 10 years down the line, Nikiforov wants the transition to Sailfish to become an international thing. By way of a Twitter post, he noted that the OS "creates a Finnish-Russian-Chinese company" that could eventually include "India, Brazil, and South Africa."