By Rounak Jain June 11, 2019, 2:33 p.m.

Huawei is not waiting for a resolution from the US

Huawei has announced that it has shipped over 1 million devices with its own HongMeng OS installed on them. HongMeng operating system is Huawei’s proprietary OS that it has been reportedly working on for a few years now.

Over 1 million HongMeng devices shipped

While the 1 million figure is significant, Huawei did not reveal if these devices running on HongMeng OS were commercially sold or if they were for testing and development purposes. However, according to research firm Rosenblatt Securities, these devices were being readied for testing purposes.

It is possible that Huawei might have invited a large group of users to test its products with HongMeng OS installed. This would help the company in identifying any major or minor issues much faster than in-house testing.

HongMeng OS supports all Android apps

The report also revealed that HongMeng OS supports all Android apps, and includes enhanced security features to protect personal data.

Further supporting this report is the fact that Huawei is reaching out to developers who have Android apps on the Google Play Store. According to a report, Huawei has started reaching out to Android developers to get their apps published on Huawei’s own store called AppGallery.

In a mail sent out to an app developer, Huawei says, “In order to guarantee a smooth usage of your App for our users, Huawei is committed to provide you with full support, to help you publish your App into AppGallery.”

Huawei notes that its AppGallery is preloaded on all devices globally and the fact that the company sold over 350 million devices globally in the last two years. Over half of these devices were reportedly sold in western markets. Huawei also states that its AppGallery has over 270 million monthly active users, although detailed app store data might be more important for developers contemplating publishing on Huawei’s app store.

HongMeng OS could land this fall

According to a report in The China Daily, Huawei’s CEO of Consumer Business Group Yu Chengdong has reportedly revealed that the HongMeng operating system will be available as early as this fall or next spring at the latest”. Huawei is reportedly working on making it available for a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, wearables, computers, TVs, cars and anything else on which you can install an OS.

While initially, HongMeng OS seemed like an Android competitor, if Huawei manages to get it working on all those products mentioned above, it might prove to be a much bigger threat to other companies as well, including Microsoft.

Has Huawei moved on?

If the reports above turn out to be accurate, then it is likely that Huawei is no longer waiting for a resolution from the US in its ongoing battle with the country led by the Trump administration. Another report has revealed that Huawei has applied for “HongMeng” trademark in multiple western markets, including Canada, Mexico and Europe. It will be interesting to see if the company continues with Android if the US lifts the ban on it.