Baidu set to launch Android ROM

Baidu is taking its smartphone push into full gear with the release of a ROM that takes Google’s full suite of Android services and replaces them with its own.

The Chinese internet giant has a lot to gain if people decide they like the new product. According to The Next Web, just under 70% of new phones in China ship with Android.

Baidu claims that the ROM, which comes standard with services including the Google-Drive like Wangpan, music, maps, apps and new photo album site Baidu Xiangce will give users a “richer, more social, more personalised experience”.

Back in February the company said it wanted to dominate the Chinese mobile space this year.

“We do think mobile will become a very important channel to distribute our products and that has increasingly become true over the past quarter. And we think during the coming year, mobile will represent an ever larger percentage of our total traffic,” Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu told an earnings conference call.

The search giant was separately rumoured to have signed a deal with Apple earlier this year which would make Baidu the default search engine on iOS devices in the country.

The ROM is available for download now, although it may only launch officially next week.