Huawei is going through tough times at the moment. The company has been kicked out of Android by Google and is also expected to cut business ties with the likes of Qualcomm, Intel, Wi-Fi Alliance, and plenty of other American companies.
Huawei, being the second-leading smartphone vendor in the world, is facing even tougher times ahead especially with respect to its restricted access to core Android and Google services. After the period ending August 19, 2019, the company will be forced to ship its smartphones without the Google Play Store, Google Play Protect, and a bunch of other Google Apps such as Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
Considering how massive these Google services are, especially the Play Store, it’s a massive hit on Huawei’s goal of becoming the leader in the smartphone industry. The company, though, seems to have been expecting such events to happen at some point and as a result, it’s said to have been working on an alternative to the popular Android OS.
Reports have indicated that the OS has been in development for years, but it’s only now that core details about it are finding their way to the public. Apparently, the operating system will be called Huawei Ark OS, at least according to a discovery made by German publication CASCHYS BLOG.
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The telco has submitted this name to German Patent and Trademark Office, drawing speculations that it could be the OS that replaces Android on future Huawei phones. Considering that Germany is one of the major Huawei markets in Europe, it makes sense that the company would file such a patent in the country.
Still, it’s worth noting that companies file patents every now and then yet they never get to materialize, so there’s still no way to confirm that Ark OS is indeed the Android replacement that Huawei has been working on for years.
The filed patent includes multiple screenshots of menus for interacting with apps on Ark OS, which look a bit different from the typical EMUI menus on Android.
The photos also repeatedly mention China’s “Android Green Alliance” association that is comprised of Chinese Internet companies like Huawei itself, Tencent and Alibaba, among others.
The association sets the quality and design standards of their apps with respect to Android OS, which obviously implies the patents are Android apps.
With all the uncertainties surrounding Ark OS, it’s hard to make any rational conclusions right now. In fact, its probably too early to tell whether this OS is a customized version based on AOSP or something totally new but with Android users in mind.
Only time will tell.
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