Posted on 05/22/2019 7:16:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Huawei Technologies, the largest smartphone vendor in China, said it has developed its own operating systems (OS) for both smartphones and computers, which can be used on its devices in the event that current systems provided by US technology giants are no longer available.
The Chinese company has developed a proprietary OS as tensions between the company and the US government could impact the availability of US-made operating systems used on Huawei devices, Huaweis mobile chief Richard Yu Chengdong, said in an interview with German publication Die Welt.
Yus comments confirm an earlier report by the South China Morning Post in April 2018, which revealed the existence of a years-long project to build an alternative to Googles Android OS. Huawei started building its own operating system after a US investigation into Huawei and ZTE Corp in 2012, a person familiar with the matter said in the report.
We have prepared our own operating system, if it turns out we can no longer use these systems [Android], we will be ready and have our plan B, Yu said in the interview.
A previous US ban on Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE from using American products and services served as a reality check for Chinas technology ambitions. Googles Android and Apples proprietary iOS have a stranglehold on smartphone operating systems, accounting for 99.9 per cent of the global market, according to Gartner estimates last year.
Huawei does have backup systems but only for use in extenuating circumstances. We don't expect to use them, and to be honest, we don't want to use them, said a Huawei spokesperson on Thursday. We fully support our partners' operating systems we love using them and our customers love using them. Android and Windows will always remain our first choices.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
Anyone who buys any electronic device from this company should understand that it will be coupled to the Red Chinese state security system.
Well, yeah - but anyone who uses Google in any form should understand that it is coupled to the American state security system.
Which entity do you think is more interested in tracking your Second Amendment-related FR posts?
You are absolutely correct. Liberals are tracking conservatives and are making lists for their eventual takeover. The safest phones do not come from the USA.
The things Google’s taken away from Huawei are the proprietary Google apps on top of Android (the store, maps).
I don’t own a google-spying phone (having instead an apple-spying phone) but I presume that lacking those means no access to most apps outside of sideloading.
Android is open source. Anybody with the want and the skills can build one of their own and not be dependent on G**gle.
No they won’t. I don’t know enough about Chinese culture and the nationalistic tendencies of the people. I did read recently that there is a coordinated anti-US PR campaign going on. So I expect some increase in nationalistic fervor. But overall I suspect that at least among Chinese who live in cities (e.g. the chinese middle class) they are like anyone else and have some affinity for American products and American brands.
What I am driving at is, suppose Hauwei does get boxed out. They will have no choice but to create their own OS. And the PRC will very likely support it, probably making it the mandatory OS for government use. And due to the variety of factors it would gain some traction in China.
I don’t expect, and don’t suspect they expect, to compete worldwide with Google on their OS. They would at first simply try to stop hemorrhaging. They can deliver a lower cost phone to a large number of people (they probably already do). They can make money locally. They can sell ads to anyone.
Longer term if this drags out, they could shift gears. They would have to decouple the OS to succeed but in theory they could compete worldwide over time. I don’t think they will get anywhere in the short term, and not far until they can convince non-Chinese users that the device isn’t just one giant piece of espionage for the PRC government (and note AAPL tries hard to present itself as pro-privacy). But if they were content with a shot at say 10% of something huge vs 100% of something modest and forced by sanctions, they could spin off their OS to third party developers to take a run at the duopoly of Android and iOS. Or, spin off a non-China version of it.
Someone is going to do it. Microsoft and possibly Facebook both could give it a shot. FB doesn’t seem likely and MSFT has been trying for ages. There are other tech firms with the resources. AMZN is crazy enough to try it but I don’t think they would succeed - I thought they were nuts to get into hardware, but it seems to be working a little bit for them. They subsidize everything they do. They sell goods at a loss, they “sell” movies via Prime at a loss. They have free cash flow from their services and lots of shareholder money to burn. But since you mentioned it, little by little, FB and AMZN are both nibbling away at GOOG’s revenues/profits. Sellers are pushing more money onto the Amazon.com website sponsored searches and ads, while FB has its many platforms which are all circulating more ads than ever and plans for more. Both drawing dollars from GOOG. My point here simply that there may be a little blood in the water already and now there is at least one desperate shark with the potential to be disruptive.
I sorta wish - and think it will happen - because as I said 10% of something massive is still something pretty damn big - that another option will come to the market. Not just for OS’ but across the board. Peter Theil’s Block.one is still kind of amorphous, based on blockchain but I think that is just buzz marketing/financing for a plan to develop variety of “Web 3.0” enterprises. I am certain they are going to try to take on Google, Facebook, Twitter and the Mainstream Media. Combined that’s $100 billion in industry and there is plenty of profit motive for someone to try to slice off 5% or 10% by willingness to make less money - because it’s still a lot of money! And with the censorship of social media and bias of MSM there is a political will in the air for it.I don’t want to speculate too much more than that but the technology exists now to disintermediate these massive companies. Going off topic here but example Uber/Lyft are taking some 35% of rideshare income - but the transaction cost between drivers and the company is a fraction of that, and could be lower still, while the back office support is bloated. Rideshare is just one step in a direction that imo will result in the demise of those who fostered its growth since technically speaking the drivers don’t really need such an expensive middle man. They will disintermediate themselves, “unionize” themselves if you will and jump to support a driver-centric platform. Facebook is working on blockchain supposedly going to “pay users” a portion of the revenue they generate and in the meantime create a currency to displace credit cards. News companies make money on ads seen by users, users will gravitate to news platforms that pay them to read. Writers are already being outsourced by the newsrooms and forced onto platforms that pay them based on readership. You can see where this is going.
Why would they need to? Android ASOP (the public domain version) is freely available even for use in commercial devices. The question is would it fail without access to the app store...
Considering how many use downloaded APKs in Asia, I suspect that it's not as big an issue - a far bigger issue for app developers as they won't have the opportunity to draw revenue from these phones. Without the Play store, that avenue is almost entirely cut off. But as Amazon has demonstrated, an alternative app store can succeed, and they certainly have a large enough audience to field their own app store.
[Longer term if this drags out, they could shift gears. They would have to decouple the OS to succeed but in theory they could compete worldwide over time. I dont think they will get anywhere in the short term, and not far until they can convince non-Chinese users that the device isnt just one giant piece of espionage for the PRC government (and note AAPL tries hard to present itself as pro-privacy). But if they were content with a shot at say 10% of something huge vs 100% of something modest and forced by sanctions, they could spin off their OS to third party developers to take a run at the duopoly of Android and iOS. Or, spin off a non-China version of it.]
If its Chinese, it will have bugs. And it will have spyware.
good for them..
Android is open source, so it’s not reverse engineered anything it’s just engineered. All the source code is available online.
I’m sure they’re just building their own flavor of Android without any Google components. There are million of these flavors already available that you can install on existing Android phones with unlocked bootloaders. I have an old Google Nexus 9 tablet with a custom ROM on it that has absolutely zero trace of Google or any of their services installed. It’s basically just a generic Linux tablet.
Stolen from...guess who!?
Nobody “needs” the App Store. Any Android ROM with microG incorporated will ‘signature spoof’ that its microG apps are genuine G**gle apps.
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