Huawei Could End Up Replacing Android with a Russian Operating System

Huawei still has a hard time figuring out which way to go after the company was banned from using Android on its smartphones, and according to a new report, the final pick could be none other than a Russian operating system.

United States President Donald Trump placed the Chinese tech giant on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in mid-May, essentially blocking the firm from doing any business with American companies and using their products.

As part of the restrictions, Huawei can no longer install Android on its new devices, so the company has been looking into several options already for its upcoming projects.

One of them appears to be going for Aurora OS, an operating system developed by Russian state-controlled telecommunications group called Rostelecom.

A report from Reuters reveals that Huawei is currently pondering whether or not to use Aurora OS on its devices, and the first step would be to install this operating system on thousands of tablets that would be used in Russia’s 2020 population census.

An early “test”

While at first glance it just looks like Huawei is one of companies racing for a government contract to power the next-year census, the Chinese giant might actually be aiming for a long-term adoption that would include bringing Aurora to more of its devices in an effort to replace Android.

“This is a pilot project. We see it as the first stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices,” one person familiar with the matter told the cited source suggesting that Huawei could eventually end up using Aurora on new smartphones and tablets.

For now, what we know is that Huawei wants to install this OS on some 360,000 tablets that would be used in the 2020 census, so if this test is successful, the company can then decide to go forward with a mass-adoption plan and bring it to more devices.

Huawei is also working on its very own in-house Android replacement called Harmony OS, but according to recent reports, this particular alternative comes with a series of limitations, including some concerning the support for Android apps.

A decision is yet to be made, it seems, and obviously, Huawei has decided to remain fully tight-lipped on its long-term plans regarding a potential replacement for Android.