Huawei Developing Its Own OS As Possible Android Replacement

Huawei has been having a hard time trying to make it in the US over the last several months, and it doesn't look like the situation will be improving anytime soon. While the company isn't quite as doomed as fellow Chinese phone manufacture ZTE, which has essentially been blacklisted in the US after trade violations, resulting in an export ban that cost it its Android license, Huawei is likely taking precautions should it find itself in the same crosshairs.

According to a new report, one of those precautions is in-house development of a mobile operating system that could be used instead of Android. Sources told the South China Morning Post that Huawei has been working on its own mobile OS — along with tablet and PC versions — since it and ZTE were the subject of a US national security investigation in 2012.

There's no details on what Huawei's OS looks like or how it operates, but it's said to not yet offer the stability, quality, or app support of Android, which is why it hasn't been officially used. Sources note that the OS is intended to be used in "worst-case scenarios," while Huawei has neither confirmed nor denied it exists. The company has previously stated that it has no plans to release its own OS in "the foreseeable future."

Huawei is already on thin ice in the US, but should it find itself the victim of a trade war with Chine, it's not the loss of the American sales market that would matter, it would be the loss of Android. Without Google's OS, Huawei would lose the ability to make and sell its phones in China and any other country. Replacing Android would be extremely difficult, especially with its app support, but Huawei's in-house OS could act as a failsafe until they come up with a better plan.

SOURCE South China Morning Post