Huawei Says Hongmeng OS Isn't Designed as an Android Replacement

Huawei reportedly wants to keep using Google's Android operating system in its phones instead of jumping to its self-developed Hongmeng system. From a report: Company senior vice president Catherine Chen told reporters in Brussels this week that the Hongmeng OS isn't even designed for phones, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Chen apparently said Hongmeng is for industrial use, noting that it contains far fewer lines of code than a phone OS, and has much lower latency than a phone, meaning it can process a very high volume of data messages with little delay. Latest episode in a confusing narrative about what Huawei even intends to do. The company's executives have previously said on record that its homegrown operating system is designed to replace Android on its handsets. One executive said the operating system would be released by last month -- a target that Huawei has missed.

Re:

[LordWabbit2]

Like you are not already a captive drone fly. Just because you and your fellow country men keep saying "we free, weee freee" doesn't make it real.

Re:

[jellomizer]

It kinda reminds me when Apple denied the ability to port iOS to the Intel Platform. This was at a point where the G5 Power PC chips were just released, and would be hoped they would have a mobile version soon... However Apple had to keep selling it notebooks with G4 chips that were rapidly aging. So they dumped the Power PC and switch to Intel.

I expect Huawei want to keep Android however politely letting the public (and Americans) know if trade restrictions get too tough, they have a back out plan.

Re:What?

[tlhIngan]

It kinda reminds me when Apple denied the ability to port iOS to the Intel Platform. This was at a point where the G5 Power PC chips were just released, and would be hoped they would have a mobile version soon... However Apple had to keep selling it notebooks with G4 chips that were rapidly aging. So they dumped the Power PC and switch to Intel.

It didn't help that Motorola, then IBM, were completely uninterested in Apple's business. Steve Jobs would announce a model and it would go on sale that day. But then so many orders would come in and Motorola/IBM simply could not supply the chips and things ended up backordered for months. It also didn't help that Motorola and IBM were far more interested in selling chips to embedded customers than Apple.

Top of the line models were especially prone to this and at times if you did not refresh until you could order the item, you wouldn't see it for long time.

It's why Apple went with Intel instead of AMD. AMD had supply issues as well, and Apple was not going to go with a vendor who could not make the chips it needed. Intel has plenty of capacity, so when Apple announces a new Mac and 500,000 orders come in on the first day, Intel could provide them as fast as Apple could make them.

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[jellomizer]

The number of lines of code, doesn't say much about the product.

You can write a bubble sort in less lines of code then a quick sort.

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[Kernel Kurtz]

Less code and low latency? No ties with google? I need this.

Being "industrial" it sounds like it is an RTOS. My car runs QNX, which is owned by Blackberry now. Blackberry 10 OS was based on it, but was not successful and is being discontinued. I never used it so I don't know if that is because of the OS performance or just because it never had any significant app ecosystem to allow it to compete.

This is a real bummer

[BanHammer]

I was genuinely excited to see what path Huawei's new OS would take as I'm tired of the Android/IOS duopoly and I was keeping my fingers crossed hoping they'd fork over linux for their new OS. Now there's nothing nothing on the horizon except that libre phone which never seems to approach its release date.

Re: This is a real bummer

[BanHammer]

Nobody trusts Huawei,the expectation was that their new OS had to be Open Source as there was little option but to fork due to the short notice period..

Re: This is a real bummer

[BanHammer]

I get your point even if it is Open source it wont remain like that for long,but like I said I'm so tired of this duopoly,understand that

Re:

[tlhIngan]

I was genuinely excited to see what path Huawei's new OS would take as I'm tired of the Android/IOS duopoly and I was keeping my fingers crossed hoping they'd fork over linux for their new OS. Now there's nothing nothing on the horizon except that libre phone which never seems to approach its release date.

Well, of course they'd use Linux - ti's the most well supported OS for the SoCs out there. But if you wanted something like a regular desktop, you'd be disappointed - Samsung tried it with Tizen, though ma

Re: This is a real bummer

[BanHammer]

Great point,I nearly forgot about that

Easier to attract flies with suger than salt

[thunderclees]

That's an easy one, if Huawei wants Alphabet to turn the screws on the administration to allow the PRC to go back to dumping on the US then they need an incentive.

Missed Deadline?

[CanadianMacFan]

They were going to have Hongmeng on their phones if Android wasn't available to them. The decision about Android access being pulled was reversed so there was no need to have their own OS on the phones. They didn't miss the deadline, the conditions for deploying it changed so that it was no longer necessary.

Re:

[kot-begemot-uk]

That is not the whole picture.

They also agreed a deal to do series of handsets for all China and Russia state employees with Sailfish as a part of Xi visit to Moscow a month ago.

If that order comes through and does not end up as a propaganda piece, it will give them a phone OS which is actually quite good. Sailfish was done by the ex-Nokia people which got thrown under the bus by Elop. For both of them it is a win-win and the only loser is Android which is the reason why the US restrictions were so hast

'Zecks

[guygo]

Gotta love the Huawei 'zecks and their knee-jerkl "We'll write our own OS!" reaction to Google's withdrawal. Juuuuuust a little bit of disconnect with what that really means...