Hongmen: the future of Huawei

4. HONGMEN: the threat to android To respond to the suspension of the Android license (which was also postponed for 3 months), the Chinese giant announced that it will launch its own operating system, which it has been working on since 2012. Meanwhile, however, many operators postpone the launch of the new Huawei smartphones.

After collecting the challenge of Donald Trump and Google, tough, Huawei is relaunching. The Chinese telecommunications giant said it was determined to transform what it called ‘a betrayal’ into an opportunity for growth. And so, to respond to the suspension of the Android license by Google - a measure imposed on Big G by the White House, but later postponed to August - Huawei announces that it will launch an operating system of its own. The new product that will have to convince millions of consumers to abandon the most popular platforms will be called ‘Hongmen’.

The Shenzhen-based company has been secretly working on this project since 2012, but has decided to make it public only now, by pressing on the accelerator, to show that it cannot react to American attacks.

In perspective, therefore, the withdrawal of the Android license could turn into a boomerang not only for Google, but also for Apple. Both would indeed see a competing operating system coming onto the market, potentially capable of undermining the dominant positions on the world scale of Android and iOS. Huawei faces this challenge with confidence because it can count on the support of Chinese state leaders. After the escalation with the US over tariffs, Beijing’s number one, Xi Jinping, sent a clear message to the United States: China is ready to once again undertake a new long march. The reference to the retreat of the Communist troops, who escaped the Kuomintang in 1934 and then defeated it, shows that China does not intend to give up an inch in the tug of war with Washington. In short, the possibility of an agreement that puts an end to commercial hostilities between the two superpowers seems ever more distant.