Huawei In Early Stages Of Creating Its Own Mobile OS Alternative To Android
Does the world need another mobile operating system to compete with Android and iOS, the two of which account for all but around 1 percent of the smartphone market? Probably not but Huawei, now the world's third largest producer of smartphones, is building an alternative OS anyway, though you may never see it.
Just as Samsung attempted to lessen its dependence on Google by developing Tizen, Huawei wants to do the same, essentially buying itself some insurance in case things take a turn for the worse for whatever reason. Huawei isn't necessarily interested in storming the OS market with an option all its own, it just wants to have in place a capable backup plan.
It's said Huawei has assembled a team in Scandinavia to build the new OS. Among the engineers working on the software are former Nokia employees, though they're not very far along on the project. Given the goals of building an alternative OS and Android's dominating share of the market, that's not a problem for Huawei—it can afford to take its time on this.
Some may question why Huawei would throw money and resources at something like this, but one thing to consider is that nothing is ever certain in the tech world. While it's hard to fathom Android going belly up, if you go back several years, BlackBerry would have said the same about its own OS. And does anybody remember Symbian?
Beyond making its own OS, Huawei also hired a former Apple designer to help its Android phones stand out from the crowd. Her name is Abigail Brody and she was brought on board to help overhaul the look of Huawei's smartphone skin that sits on top of Android, and specifically to make it look less like iOS.
Just as Samsung attempted to lessen its dependence on Google by developing Tizen, Huawei wants to do the same, essentially buying itself some insurance in case things take a turn for the worse for whatever reason. Huawei isn't necessarily interested in storming the OS market with an option all its own, it just wants to have in place a capable backup plan.
It's said Huawei has assembled a team in Scandinavia to build the new OS. Among the engineers working on the software are former Nokia employees, though they're not very far along on the project. Given the goals of building an alternative OS and Android's dominating share of the market, that's not a problem for Huawei—it can afford to take its time on this.
Some may question why Huawei would throw money and resources at something like this, but one thing to consider is that nothing is ever certain in the tech world. While it's hard to fathom Android going belly up, if you go back several years, BlackBerry would have said the same about its own OS. And does anybody remember Symbian?
Beyond making its own OS, Huawei also hired a former Apple designer to help its Android phones stand out from the crowd. Her name is Abigail Brody and she was brought on board to help overhaul the look of Huawei's smartphone skin that sits on top of Android, and specifically to make it look less like iOS.
