With the U.S. still blocking Huawei from access to American companies like Google, the China-based electronics maker seems to be ready to move away from the Android operating system.
According to Tech Sina, Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei said at the Winter Davos forum that the HongMeng system, also called Harmony OS, is currently active. Zhengfei said that this system will be available in a variety of products, including phones, tablets, and TVs.
Previously, Huawei said that it preferred to use Android in its mobile handsets over Harmony OS, and will continue to use it unless there’s a need to switch. However, it seems that due to this ban, the company is ready to switch over to Harmony OS.
According to the report, the system is currently in the process of continually getting better and is expected to be officially open sourced in August of next year.
In December, Counterpoint, a technology market research company, said that it believes Hongmeng will surpass Linux by the end of this year and will become the fifth most popular smart digital terminal operating system.
However, if the switch to Harmony OS does happen, it’s unclear how it would affect Huawei’s reception in other markets. Even though Canada didn’t receive the Mate 30 series or Huawei’s Mate X, the company does sell these handsets in other markets outside of China. They use EMUI 10, based on Android 10 with Huawei Mobile Services, as the replacement for the Play Store. It’s unclear if Huawei will be able to sell its future devices in other markets if it switched to the HongMeng system.
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