Huawei has been working on its own mobile operating system for a few years now, and it looks like that’s going to be coming out later this fall. And in a smart move, it’ll also have Android App compatibility.
This comes out of Caijing, a Chinese publication who spoke with Huawei’s CEO, Richard Yu. In the interview, he revealed some details about Huawei’s new mobile operating system. Yu stated that it will be available this fall, or early next year, and essentially be available on all of its products. That includes smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars and wearables.
Huawei has already built its own operating system for wearables, called Lite OS. Which we’ve seen on the Huawei Watch GT last year. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see this as an extension of that operating system.
This new operating system is going to support Android apps, which is a big deal. And for Huawei, the smart thing to do. Any company can build a new OS to compete with iOS or Android. But without app and developer support, that new OS is essentially dead on arrival. But allowing Android apps to work on this new platform, means that they are going to have a ton of apps available on day one. Though one question that remains is app updates. As we’ve seen something similar with the Amazon Fire OS Android apps, which don’t get updated or get updated very late.
Of course, this news comes after the US banned Huawei from working with any US company. That led to Google having to cut business ties with Huawei, with Microsoft, Qualcomm and Intel following suite. Making it pretty tough for Huawei to make products. Seeing as it was cut off by hardware and software partners. Huawei could still use Android, but it wouldn’t get help from Google, nor get Google Apps or early code for new versions of Android. That’s one of the good things about Android being open source, as they weren’t completely out of luck, but almost.
There have been reports for many years that Huawei was building its own operating system to replace Android. As Huawei had seen this day coming for quite some time. Especially once Trump took office, and really went after China as well as Huawei. The company was smart to get building this operating system ahead of time. But it does still have an uphill battle in the US.
This is just the beginning for Huawei and the US government. The Commerce Department granted it a temporary license yesterday, so that it can work with US companies for 90 days, until it can get things worked out. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see this get extended either. As the US doesn’t really want to put a company out of business (essentially), but are more likely using Huawei as a pawn in its trade war with China. Since China has such an invested interest in Huawei, it will likely work to get a trade deal put in place between the two countries.