Goodbye Android, and hello Hongmeng. Huawei has formally got the approval to use the trademark Huawei Hongmeng for its secret replacement for Google’s Android on its own smartphones and tablets, according to the State Administration of Industry and Commerce.
The new trademark covers areas including mobile phone programming, messaging app programming, SaaS (software as a service), cloud computing and PaaS (platform as a service).
The Shenzhen-based company applied for the trademark last August and got provisional approval on May 14, 2019, two days before it was blacklisted by the US government which led to further tech decoupling between China and the United States.
Google, whose Android operating system runs on Huawei smartphones now, confirmed earlier this week that it would suspend some of its service to new Huawei devices, though existing devices would not be affected.
Earlier the week, the Information reported that Huawei had been working on a homegrown operating system, known internally as Project Z, for many years.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business said the company’s own operating system for smartphones, laptops, and tablets could be ready for domestic users as soon as this fall, and the international version could come online next year.
Despite claiming the company has a backup plan to deal with the worst case scenario—which would be the US government cutting off all current links between Huawei and its US suppliers—senior executives of the company, including Richard Yu and Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, have said on many occasions Huawei would still prefer to keep working with their US suppliers.
Richard Yu told CNBC that Huawei is still committed to Microsoft Windows and Android, but if those are no longer an option it will revert to plan B which is to use its own OS.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad