I don't think you read the article. :) The article specifically talks about smartphones, not feature phones. It mentions how Chrome is an issue for cheaper smartphones with less storage: "The UC Browser app takes up 31 megabytes of space, compared with Chrome’s 125 megabytes". And aside from a smaller app size, UC also compresses data and blocks ads to reduce data requirements (data tends to be expensive in emerging countries).

Let's face it, Chrome is designed by and for people living in the west, where people have smartphones with lots of storage and typically buy monthly plans with unlimited (or large allowance of) data.

I don't think this makes much sense, just looking at China (where I have some insight). You can easily run Chrome (default install) on a <$150 = 1000 RMB phone from Lenovo/ZTE/BLU. Below $100 today performance quickly drops to unusable.

https://www.phonearena.com/news/8-best-cheap-phones-under-15...

I'm suspicious that the numbers also include non-smart phones, just because of the 430M size, use of the word "mobile", and discussion of a browser from 2004 that predates the iPhone. Further, to the extent that compression is important, I'm suspicious their proxy-compression is a bigger deal for people looking to save money on data (and governments looking to monitor them).

What Google needs to look out for is UC becoming a default App since Alibaba and Alipay are already huge in China, and they could pay for it. Most people don't care about what browser is pre-installed on their phone, if it just works. Of course an Indonesian or Indian company could do this just as well as Alibaba.

"Mobile" is just British / Commonwealth English for a cell phone, regardless of performance or features. Maybe the author is based in such a country.

I can believe 430M, compared to a few years ago it seems every other person in a developing country now has one.

There is Chromium based Yandex Browser Lite which requires only 1mb of storage size https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yandex.bro...

I'd assume it's either a proxy browser and not doing much locally or just using Android's WebView; even Opera/Presto towards its end couldn't fit in such a small binary despite targetting tiny devices.

Probably uses the native Android Webview...

Right but this part...

>giving owner Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. an advantage in the race among technology giants to capture the next generation of internet users

...seems suspect. Most western Chrome users started off with Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc., and then switched when they got better machines and got tech-savvier and realized it was a better browser.

So just because a browser reaches a user first does not, I think, mean it has "capture"d that "generation".

I think you overestimate most people. There’s a reason why IE is still supported on the web. People will continue to use what they know if it isn’t negatively impacting them. Most people don’t use all the extra features in the browser. They just want Facebook to work.

That said, I don’t trust the security of this browser so I don’t think it’s a good thing people are using it.

>The UC Browser app takes up 31 megabytes of space, compared with Chrome’s 125 megabytes

Given that bundling Chrome is a requirement if you want to ship a mobile phone with the Play Store, this is a moot point

Several devices I've bought in the last few years (mostly cheap ones of chinese manufacture), did not include Google Play; they mostly encouraged either Aptoide or 1Mobile Market. Heck, that's part of why I keep F-Droid on my phone now.

And now I wonder whether we can take UC browser and turn it into a slimmer Electron.

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. Although UC does make an Android version, they are much better known for supporting Java even if Android comprises more than half of their total users.

Note that it's been banned from the PlayStore as well for inflating installs "with malicious redirect ads":

http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/uc-browse...

And when those users upgrade to a mid-tier phone in the future, what browser do you suspect they will adopt?

The thing they are used to, or the thing that is new?

Most click on "Internet" to go to their browser, so yeah I don't think there's much brand loyalty.

The thing that is installed by default.

The one preinstalled on their phone, as long as it has a text field at the top where they can just type where they want to go. Most people don’t give any thought to these things.

No they won't bcuz UC comes with features that people actually like

-data compression (which also acts as a vpn to access blocked content)

-content feeds

UCBrowser will ship preinstalled as system browser on their mid-tier phone too (MTK, 6" 18:9, 3-4GB RAM, $100-$150)

Only speculating, but I would guess that "low end" describes a lot (perhaps even the large majority) of phones in active use in China, India and other Asian countries.

Yes, the browser for the next 3 billion people.

Yes. Provided the websites/web-based applications aren't hogs. We're talking to you Slack ;)

Nope, look at some 'low-end phones' of 2017

Leagoo M9 - Android 7.0, 1280x640 IPS 5.5", 4-core MTK6580, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, 8MP, WiFi, BT, dual SIM (second slot is universal, SIM card or memory card) - $55

ZTE Axon 7 Mini 4G (Global Version) - Android 6.0, 1920x1080 5.2", octa-core Snapdragon 617, 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM, 8MP+16MP, WiFi, BT, dual SIM - $120

And with Android Go they will run even faster.

It's amazing that we can get portable Linux devices with specs like that for so little money these days. It's a shame that Mediatek doesn't respect the GPL so hackability is low otherwise there would be so many prototype/IOT/research uses for a device like this!

Thanks to MTK datasheet leaks (try finding the docs for Qualcomm or even Broadcom stuff...), and the easy rooting (no locked bootloaders), "hackability" is actually quite high. You can also find the source code pretty easily even if it's not officially released --- a lot of these Chinese smartphones are based on the same hardware with only cosmetic differences.

The culture/ecosystem is very different: https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297

The state of affairs of Linux and smartphones is pretty grim outside of MTK world too.

https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/hwenablement_mainline...