Fears of snooping as Huawei phones to DITCH Google’s Android for new China-made system
HUAWEI has revealed it will be using the Harmony operating system on its smartphones in 2021 instead of Google’s Android software.
The recent announcement was made at its annual developer conference in Dongguan, China.
Just like Android apps come from the Google Play Store, Harmony apps would come from Huawei’s Chinese-developed HMS Core.
One problem is that HMS Core currently only offers 96,000 apps.
In comparison, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store have millions.
This means Huawei needs to attract more developers.
It announced that the beta version of its second-generation operating system for developers will launch by the end of 2020.
This suggests Huawei phones are currently still based on Android.
The new EMUI 11 smartphone does have an Android 10 interface.
Notably, it’s not compatible with the newly released Android 11.
Huawei’s operating system currently reaches 490 million users.
Despite security concerns, snooping claims and an ongoing battle with US President Donald Trump, it sold 105 million handsets in the first half of 2020.
Who owns Huawei?
Huawei's ownership is a bit of a mystery...
According to the New York Times, Huawei’s ownership is a “murky matter”.
This is because the company has never ever sold shares to the public.
The firm claims it is entirely owned by its workers, and that no outside organisations, including any linked with the Chinese government, own shares.
But American officials suspect Beijing and the Communist Party are somehow pulling the strings.
Top American officials are alarmed about new Chinese laws requiring companies to help in national intelligence work.
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In other news, Facebook wants to pay users to deactivate their accounts for one to six weeks as part of a social experiment.
TikTok could be banned as the Chinese app looks ‘set to miss Trump’s deadline for sale in the US’.
And, Fortnite could be facing a year-long Apple ban, according to the game’s developer Epic Games.
What are your thoughts on Huawei? Let us know in the comments…
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