The Russian search and software company announced free software  that brings a Yandex-flavored experience to Android phones.
      Yandex.Kit builds on Google's Android software, but replaces      many Google-specific tools with Yandex alternatives for home      screen, maps, e-mail, search, and more.    
    Russian search and software company Yandex is offering a    collection of free tools to turn the Android open-source    foundation into a usable phone operating system.  
    The software, called Yandex.Kit, gives a    Yandex-flavored experience by linking to the company's own    services -- e-mail, maps, contacts, online storage, and app    store -- rather than Google's alternatives. It's also got    lower-level components like a browser and home screen.  
    Two phone makers who've signed up for the approach, Huawei and    Explay, will show the technology next week at the Mobile World Congress show in    Barcelona, Yandex    announced Wednesday.  
    There are two basic varieties of Yandex.Kit: a 15-package    collection of programs for devices sold in Russia, and a    narrower collection for devices used elsewhere in the world,    the company said.  
    Android's foundation are open-source software,    but much of Android's utility stems from apps that are    hardwired to connect to Google cloud services. Yandex.Kit is    designed to swap out that higher-level layer for phone makers    that want to sidestep Google's requirements, the company said:  
      There isn't much use of a free operating system if you cannot      offer your customers all the basic features mobile users now      take for granted. The Android mobile OS is free, but all the      defining features of a mobile experience -- app store,      browser, email and maps -- are all available under special,      case-by-case agreements...    
      While we primarily were working on covering all the bases for      our users on Android devices, what we've got in the end was a      full-fledged Android 'ecosystem'. A comprehensive,      out-of-the-box solution, versatile and technologically honed      enough to be offered to original device manufacturers as      firmware that they can install on their devices shipped to      the Russian market. This is the key to the car they were      given for free and now they can drive it.    
    Yandex.Kit has a lot less appeal outside Russia, naturally. But    within the country, Yandex has defended its turf against Google    for years. Yandex.Kit is a new step in that defense by giving    the company a better way to adjust to the mobile device    revolution that Android itself is helping to bring about.  
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Yandex suite of free Android tools sidesteps Google