The latest report comes courtesy of Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, which reports that the OS has been in development for far longer than the Trump-led Huawei ban has been in effect. Hongmeng is a really simple operating system compared to the likes of Android, according to SVP Catherine Chen. The news echoes another recent report that Huawei had primarily developed the software for use on IoT devices.
None of this signifies that Huawei is not working on a full mobile operating system, of course. Or that the seeds of this new OS couldn't be adapted to do more.
And given the present news, such a move might possibly be a pretty good use of the company’s significant resources. Basically, it’s no doubt seen the writing on the wall for some time. While no one predicted that such a ban would arrive so abruptly, questions about the company have been floated in security circles for years now.
New polices from the Trump administration bolted Huawei from working with American companies like Google, but brief reprieves have enabled the smartphone maker to employ Android services — at least momentarily. Questions about the company’s health are still very much up in the air, yet, as the ban ramps back up.
