After the serious google ban, Huawei had been struggling to survive in the smartphone industry, at least thats what it seems like. It is inevitable that Huawei will surely be working on the google’s android alternative with their own operating system, call hongmeng (or Ark OS?), which they reportedly had been working for years. Will the google ban impact Huawei’s business? This question popped up ever since the news broke out from United States government.
It is reported that Hongmen OS has been in the development phase since 2012. It is the android replacement for their smartphones and home appliances. Other manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Tencent has been working with Huawei and its clear that this is not good sign for Android. Huawei has allowed them to test their operating system to get some user experience feedback so they can improve if necessary.
Popular google services like gmail, youtube and google search have not seen the light of the day in china since chinese people have already been dependant upon their homegrown google-alternative services like wechat, baidu and youku.
The Chinese market alone has 900 million smartphone users. If they decide to use it without access to Google Android, it could significantly take away Google’s monopoly in the android market. Although, originally not envisioned as an OS for smartphones, Hwawei has been taking major steps to make it an android alternative for their own safety if there comes any issue with google’s android. It is very likely that Hongmeng OS will be adapted for Huawei smartphones and Huawei will not give up without a fight.
The whole Huawei ban has been a headache for google since Huawei’s users have always been loyal to the brand and since the issue has gotten worse, they would obviously stand by Huawei’s side which poses a great loss to google. China has been surviving without google for decades. Popular google services like gmail, youtube and google search have not seen the light of the day in china since chinese people have already been dependant upon their homegrown google-alternative services like wechat, baidu and youku. Its unclear whether the US ban continues or halts but the steps has already been taken by Huawei to tackle with the issue and google might be loosing their grip on Huawei.