It’s already in testing: a million devices have it running. This is all we know until now about ArkOS, Huawei’s Alternative Operating System To Android.
Huawei’s delicate situation in the face of Donald Trump’s government’s veto continues to give much to talk about.
Google was the first to throw the stone, but many others followed and although the door has been opened to a possible political solution, everything is still in the air.
Meanwhile the Chinese manufacturer has been moving, and according to a recent report seems to be advancing in the implementation of its alternative operating system to Android, which has been developing for months.
According to the latest data, a million devices are already working with this alternative operating system that would be ready for public release from this autumn.
An Operating System and an Android-compatible app store is on the way
The consulting firm Rosenblatt Securities published a report in the Chinese media China Daily in which it pointed out that the manufacturer already has one million devices based on that operating system known as HongmengOS in China but that in the West we have known by its nickname, ArkOS.
That system could be ready between this fall and the spring of 2020, it would not only be oriented to mobiles but also to tablets, televisions, cars and laptops.
Another fundamental part of that strategy is to create a strong software ecosystem through its own app store. The firm has been offering its AppGallery for some time, and according to XDA-Developers the firm is contacting a multitude of developers so that in addition to publishing their developments on Google Play. They also do so in that store that apparently has an aesthetic and features very similar to Google’s mobile app store.
In that message, said one of the developers who had received it, Huawei talked about how the company has “270 million active users” in more than “350 million devices”, half of which are sold outside China.
Does Huawei violate the veto when using Open Source
Meanwhile in Ars Technica they were trying to explore the scope of this commercial war and Huawei’s entry in the Entity List, the commercial blacklist that has provoked the veto of several North American companies to Huawei.
According to Kevin Wolf, author of a bulletin detailing the side effects of this veto, the ban on working with Huawei not only affects Android, but even its Open Source part, AOSP. In Ars they explain the following:
Open Source, by the way, is not a way to dodge the export law. The copyright for open source software still belongs to someone – Google owns the copyright for Android, for example, while Linus Torvalds and others own Linux. The U.S. export law is still valid in these cases.
Other key elements of the Android platform are also managed by U.S. Companies, and the most notable case is that of Java, owned by Oracle. Which was in fact an argument for a legal dispute between Google and Oracle. This dispute ended with a ruling in favor of the Mountain View company, whose use of Java in Android was described as ‘fair use’ or justified use.
That argument could probably not be applied in a case like the one affecting Huawei, which would theoretically violate the veto by using this technology.
The implications of this scandal are therefore difficult to quantify, but the G20 conference at the end of June in Japan may indeed serve to calm the waters, especially when even within the Trump team the doubts about this veto are clear.
Trump and Jinping will meet and may be all end up in nothing. But, just in case what seems clear is that China is preparing its reaction with its own ‘Entity List’. While Huawei is not sitting idly by either and raises that alternative to Android that would still be compatible with their applications. Is is indeed a huge mess.
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