Aliyun, a new mobile OS by Alibaba Group, should be available in English later this year. Image: Penn Olson

Android, iOS …. they’re so mainstream now. And Windows Phone 7, webOS and Symbian could use another competitor on the market, right?

Of course, I’m being a bit (OK, more than a bit) sarcastic, but there is a new player entering the mobile OS battlefield: Aliyun, from e-commerce and cloud computing group Alibaba.

In a press release Thursday, Alibaba Cloud Computing announced the development of a cloud-based mobile OS dubbed “Aliyun OS.” It’ll debut later this month in China on a new s...