Hongmeng was apparently not developed to replace Android.
What you need to know
- Huawei Senior Vice President Catherine Chen has said that the company’s homegrown Hongmeng OS is not designed for smartphones.
- The company will continue to use Google’s Android OS on its smartphones.
- Hongmeng OS is expected to debut with the company’s upcoming Smart TV.
Huawei had hinted earlier this year that it would switch to its own proprietary operating system in case it is not allowed to use Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows operating systems on its products. The company’s board member and senior Vice President Catherine Chen has now said that the Hongmeng operating system was never actually meant to be used in smartphones. She added that Huawei does not plan to move away from Android and that its smartphones will continue using Google’s mobile operating system.
According to Chen, the company’s Hongmeng operating system is not an alternative to Android, but has been designed for “industrial use.”
She added that Hongmeng has much fewer lines of codes compared to operating systems designed for smartphones, which usually have millions of lines of codes. As a result, Huawei’s proprietary operating system is said to be very secure and also boasts extremely low latency compared to traditional mobile operating systems.
Back in March this year, Huawei executive Richard Yu had said in an interview that the company had prepared its own operating system and will be ready to switch in case it was banned from using Android. More recently, Andrew Williamson, Vice President of Huawei’s public affairs and communications, told Reuters that the company was in the process of launching Hongmeng as an alternative to Android and that it would be ready “in months” in case the company is barred from using Google’s mobile operating system.
Chen’s statements, however, suggest the company doesn’t actually have an alternative ready yet. As per the latest reports, Hongmeng is likely to debut with Huawei’s first Smart TV sometime next month.
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