Huawei's Self-developed OS to be Ready by The End of 2019

Healthcare, Technology, Financials Author: Qasim Khan May 23, 2019 11:26 PM (GMT+8)

Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer division, told CNBC that the company's own operating system could be ready to replace Google and Microsoft operating systems by early 2020

Mobile World Congress. PHOTO: Huawei official website.

The blacklisting and ban of Huawei has been a hot topic for the past couple of weeks. Huge companies like Google have taken a step back in their businesses with Huawei. Despite all the trouble, the World’s second largest smartphone vendor seems to be confident. Huawei expects its self-developed OS to be ready for market roll-out as early as the end of 2019.

As a result of US ban that will prevent Huawei from installing Google services on smartphones sold in overseas markets, the company plans to launch its own operating system compatible with Google’s Android, according to Huawei’s mobile business chief executive Richard YU(余承东).

YU said that Huawei’s operating system will be able to support a range of products and systems within its ecosystem, including smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs, automobiles and smart wear, which will also be compatible with all Android applications and existing web applications.

“The Huawei OS is likely to hit the market as soon as this fall, and no later than spring next year.” Richard YU.

The Chinese tech giant has reportedly been working on its own OS for several years, and some outlets even allege the OS has been in development since 2012. A new report from The Information states that Huawei’s home-made OS, which is called ‘Project Z’ internally, is far from ready and due to recent events, the company has accelerated the development of this platform. The OS was initially meant for the Chinese market only since Google’s apps and services aren’t active there. However, with the recent events, there needed to be some drastic changes done.

Yu said Huawei’s own app store, known as the App Gallery, would be available on its own operating system. The App Gallery is installed on Huawei’s devices currently, but Google’s Play Store is often the default app store for consumers.

Huawei will need to make its own software with a user experience that can match Google and its variety of apps, according to Neil Shah, a research director. 

Huawei is also considering adding the Aptoide store to its phones, an app market that hosts more than 900,000 apps and has almost 200 million users. Aptoide already works with other Chinese companies, including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo.

Even if the company does manage to get the OS up and running, it will be facing huge hurdles of getting developers to recompile apps for its platform. In the past, many vendors have unsuccessfully tried to break away from the Google ecosystem and it remains to be seen if Huawei will do any better.