Last month, Google revoked Huawei’s license to use its Android mobile operating system after the U.S. Department of Commerce listed Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd under its Entity list which includes companies that pose a threat to its national security.
Later, the US Commerce Department eased up the ban and provided a 90-day window to settle with other companies before the ban goes into effect. Meanwhile, the company confirmed that the existing users of Huawei smartphones will continue to receive updates.
But, it doesn’t seem that the situation for Huawei can improve anytime soon and the company has also revealed that the ban will hit Huawei’s revenue by $30 billion. However, the company is working on its own mobile operating system — HongMeng OS (Oak OS).
In an interview with CNBC, Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei claimed that Google will lose 700-800 million users if Huawei abandons Android. He said that Huawei and Google will “always be on the same line of interest, and if we don’t load Google’s system, Google will lose 700-800 million users in the future.”
He added that the company does not want to replace Google’s system at all because it will slow down the growth but if they get to that point, Huawei has its own system to replace and will return to growth. HongMeng OS or Oak OS is all set to release by the end of September or October and will initially focus on the mid-range devices, as per the reports.
In a recently conducted test of Huawei’s own mobile operating system, in which other Chinese brands like Vivo and Oppo also participated, it was claimed that HongMeng OS is about 60 percent faster than Android. There are reports that claim that Huawei is in talks with Sailfish OS and Russia’s Avrora OS as a possible replacement for Android.
The HongMeng OS from Huawei will be compatible with all Android apps and they can also be recompiled to improve performance, like Chrome OS. If Huawei replaces Android OS and convinces other Chinese smartphone manufacturers to use its operating system, it could pose a great threat to Google’s monopoly in the smartphone market with Android OS.
