Ark OS
Huawei reportedly halts smartphone production lines after US ban
According to a report from the South China Morning Post, Huawei has reduced orders for new phones amid an ongoing US export ban on the Chinese tech giant.
Huawei originally set out a target to surpass Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone maker by 2020. However, the tussle between the US and Chinese phone maker has crushed Huawei’s dreams to become the number one smartphone maker by next year.
As the new situation has emerged, it is too early to say whether we are able to achieve the goal,” Zhao Ming, the president of Honor said, responding to questions about Huawei’s plans to overtake Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone vendor by 2020. In Q1 2019, Huawei shipped an estimated 59.1 million smartphones worldwide, according to research firm IDC. The company is the second largest smartphone maker behind Samsung and ahead of Apple.
The news of Foxconn halting production lines for several lines for Huawei phones is an early indication of how the US ban could damage the company’s smartphone business.
Last month, the Trump administration had put Huawei on a trade backlist that barred the company from doing any business with the North American firms without approval.
Huawei says it has been developing its own mobile operating system, according to the company’s mobile business chief Richard Yu. The operating system, likely to be called Ark OS, will run on a number of devices including smartphones, laptops, tablets, wearables, and TVs. The Huawei OS will reportedly hit the market as soon as this year.
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The Northeast Asia Open Source Software Promotion Forum held in Seoul, South Korea. Huawei’s Ark Compiler won the 2019 “Northeast Asia Excellent Open Source Project ” award.
Requirements To Win Northeast Asia Excellent Open Source Project Award: The winners have to be outstanding in terms of openness, innovation, and effectiveness. At present, the Ark compiler adopts the Mulan open source license. At the same time, the Ark compiler supports multiple programming languages. It also supports cross-language, compilation optimization, and a variety of chip platforms.
Huawei claims that the Ark compiler can improve system fluency by 24%, system response speed by 44%, and third-party applications can be up to 60% after recompilation. At the HDC Developers Conference in August this year, Huawei announced that it has partnered with more than 40 top developers to compile and optimize various popular applications.
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On June 8th, according to the Financial Times, Google is trying to persuade the Trump administration to no longer ban the license to export to Huawei, and to provide technology to Huawei in the name of US national security. The Financial Times quoted sources as saying that the core point of the argument is that Huawei will be forced to launch an “hybrid” version of Android that will be “more vulnerable to hacking, especially in China.”
There is no doubt that if Google and other US companies no longer do business with companies like Huawei, then their revenue will indeed be affected. Is it true that Google is worried about losing Huawei as a big customer, or is it really because the “mixed” version of Android will lead to more serious security problems, we don’t know, but it is certain that many large technology companies in the United States are banned from Huawei. There is no firm position and the Trump administration is on the sidelines.
At present, all US companies, including Google, are prohibited from doing business with Huawei. In the long run, this means that Google will not be able to provide any services on Huawei phones. In the short term, Huawei obtained a temporary license and can continue to receive support from Google Software Update.
Recently, Huawei’s “Hongmeng” has heard news frequently. The latest media report is that Huawei’s new operating system is named “Hongmeng OS” in the domestic market and “Oak(Ark) OS” (Ark) in overseas markets, or Launched in August or September.
Huawei’s consumer BG CEO Yu Chengdong previously revealed that Huawei’s self-developed operating system has opened up mobile phones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars, smart wear, and unified into an operating system. Moreover, Huawei’s OS is compatible with all Android applications and all web applications, and if the Android application is recompiled, the running performance of the system will increase by more than 60%.
In addition, Huawei registered its self-developed operating system trademark in Europe on May 29 this year and named it “ARK” (Ark).
Huawei previously said that it can launch a custom operating system “very fast”, although it is not clear that it is based on the Android version currently used in China (no Google service), or a brand new self-developed system, but Hongmeng has clearly become famous. outer.
The Verge analyzed Huawei’s subsequent developments that no longer receive Google Android updates:
The first step: Huawei launched a forked version that no longer includes Google services. One of the most important features of Google services is Google Play Protect, which automatically scans for malware, viruses and security threats. The other is that users who use Google services to buy mobile phones typically use the apps available in the Google Play store, which are much more secure than users in other unofficial stores.
Step 2: Huawei mobile phones with a forked version of Android are sold globally. These Huawei phones are not so secure and hacked.
Step 3: Someone in the United States unwittingly sends sensitive information to a Huawei phone that is using one of the “blacked out”. Regardless of how secure end-to-end encryption is, if there is malware directly on the phone, it is possible to see the message being sent.
Step 4: The US National Security Agency compromises.
Google’s arguments may mean whether this dispute can be resolved quickly or lead to more complex results. The impact of banned Huawei mobile phones from updating to the latest Android system may be incalculable. According to overseas market research firm Gartner, in the first quarter of 2019, Huawei became the world’s second largest smartphone manufacturer with 58 million units of shipments. The rate reached a record high of 15.7%.
As Bloomberg pointed out, Huawei itself has stated that “there is no direct negotiation with the US government and is waiting for Google negotiations to develop.” This means that Google’s negotiations with the US government are now the center of action.
According to official sources, Google’s provisional license for Huawei’s mobile phones will expire on August 19.
Huawei’s OS is said to be called as ‘HongMeng’ OS in China and ‘Oak OS’ internationally. The rumors about the name Ark OS emerged from a few European trademarks from the company. Plus, Huawei’s compiler is called as the Ark compiler which further led people to speculate that the new OS will end up being called as the Ark OS.
If Globaltimes’ source is accurate, then the so-called ‘Oak OS’ from Huawei is currently being tested intensively. The launch is expected sometime around August or September, which is about the same time when Huawei’s 90-day temporary respite from the US trade ban ends.
Google reportedly said that if Huawei was to roll out its own Android system based on AOSP, it would be less secure than Google’s version. There could be bugs and issues which could put Huawei phones at risk of being hacked. In fact, FT quotes Google saying, “Our focus is protecting the security of Google users on the millions of existing Huawei handsets in the US and around the world.”
While Google’s points are valid, Huawei Oak OS has the potential to replace Google’s licensed Android on non-Huawei phones as well. With the increasing threat to non-US companies from the Trump government, many are looking for alternatives to US technology. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if other Chinese companies joined Huawei to work on Oak OS to ensure they aren’t overly dependent on US companies.
