HongMeng OS is not intended for phones: Huawei executive

Huawei's precipitous relationship with the current US administration once resulted in the threat of the loss of  Android as an OS for its increasingly popular and powerful smartphones. This eventuality may now be less acute than once thought. Nevertheless, it has resulted in theories that HongMeng, its new in-house OS, was being developed as the basis of a proprietary, iOS-like ecosytem for mobile devices.

However, it appears that these indications have been debunked. Speaking in the course of an interview in Brussels, Huawei's SVP Catherine Chen categorically denied that HongMeng is an Android replacement. Instead, the executive asserted that the OS is in fact destined for "industrial" purposes.

Chen backed up this statement by referring to HongMeng's volume of code, which, apparently, is considerably reduced compared to that of the average smartphone OS. Then again, this new system is also much snappier than that of the typical mobile device.

Additionally, while HongMeng may now be off the table in terms of Huawei's putative in-house alternative to Google's software, more leaks suggest that it has others to choose from. Judging from the number of alleged trademarks linked to this potential OS, it may also be called Harmony, Ark OS or Oak OS.