Li Tao · · 3 min readHuawei to unveil new OS for smart displays, as it battles effects of US trade blacklist
Huawei Technologies will first equip its self-developed operating system on new smart display products to be launched by budget brand Honor this weekend, according to people familiar with the situation. This comes as the world’s second largest smartphone vendor continues to battle the effects of being placed on a US trade blacklist.
The long-awaited operating system, known as Hongmeng, will be introduced during the three-day Developer Conference in Dongguan starting August 9, said the people, who declined to be identified as the information is private.
Huawei declined to comment on the matter.
Photo credit: Tech in Asia
Honor, one of Huawei’s two smartphone brands, previously announced that it will release the company’s first smart display products on August 10, the second day of the company’s developer conference in Dongguan, which is near the coastal tech hub of Shenzhen and home to Huawei’s headquarters.
On July 26, Honor president George Zhao Ming unveiled the HiSilicon “Honghu 818” intelligent chipset and smart pop-up camera for large screens at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Guangzhou. The move was a warm up ahead of the official release of the smart display products in Dongguan.
Google and Microsoft, whose Android and Windows operating systems are currently used on Huawei’s laptops and tablets, have both suspended access for new Huawei devices. This comes with only a 90-day reprieve from the US government, in the wake of the Chinese tech firm being put on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List in May.
Although US President Donald Trump said at the Osaka G20 summit in June that some restrictions would be lifted against Huawei, the precise situation remains unclear.
After becoming the world’s number two smartphone vendor in the second quarter, ahead of Apple and behind Samsung, Huawei is under pressure to maintain its momentum as overseas customers may be put off from buying a phone that might not allow them to access popular Google apps.
Before the trade blacklisting earlier this year, Huawei acknowledged that it was developing 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 in March. “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.”
A smart display is any voice assistant smart speaker designed to be used around the home. It also includes a sizable touch screen.
As many smart TVs already use Android and Tizen operating systems, IHS Markit senior industry analyst Zaker Li said it is unclear at this stage what kind of additional functionality Hongmeng, which Huawei has described as being aimed at internet of things applications, may offer.
On JD.com, one of China’s major ecommerce platforms, Honor has already started to take reservations for two models of its smart display products, a standard edition and Pro edition, both of which come with 55-inch screens.
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