Huawei’s Hongmeng OS is ‘faster’ than Android and MacOS, built for versatility

Although US President Donald Trump has softened his view on China and Huawei, the latter is not giving up on developing its own operating system.

When the US pulled all trade support from Huawei in April, the company was left stranded with a future devoid of Android. However, in an interview with French magazine Le Point (via Sina Tech), Huawei chief Ren Zhengfei has touted the speed and versatility of the OS, called Hongmeng.

Claiming that it will likely be faster than both Google’s Android and Apple’s MacOS, Hongmeng will also feature a ridiculously long list of use cases.

“The system has a processing delay of less than five milliseconds. It will be perfectly adapted to the internet of things and can also be applied to autonomous driving,” Zhengfei added.

Oh, and it’s not just crafted for smartphones either. Hongmeng can run on “printed circuit boards, switches, routers […] and data centers”, opening the door for a future Huawei smarthome ecosystem.

While that all sounds great, many a good OS has died for lack of app support. Just ask BlackBerry and Microsoft. Zhengfei acknowledges this, suggesting that there’s still a dearth of a “good application ecosystem” for Hongmeng. However, the company has sought the help of developers to craft apps for its OS.

It’s not clear if we’ll ever see Hongmeng beyond the borders of China, but you probably shouldn’t be too surprised to see elevators or smart toasters running the OS.

Feature image: The Huawei Mate S smartphone, by Andy Walker/Memeburn