Huawei operating system built in secret for 7 years

Huawei has been building an alternative to Google Android for seven years, according to an article in the South China Morning Post.

Huawei told CNBC last month that his operating system could be ready as early as this year if he can not use Google Android or Microsoft Windows.

Huawei is currently installing Android on its smartphones and Microsoft Windows on its computers, although Chinese versions of its phones use the open source version of Google's operating system (called AOSP) without Google Play services, such as Google Play App Store.

Huawei would have liked to create a backup plan if ever he was banned from using Android. In May, the Commerce Department added Huawei and 68 other companies to an export blacklist, which means that Huawei can not buy goods from the United States. Google said it would cut ties with Huawei but got a 90-day license allowing it to continue working with Huawei to ensure that devices that are already running its software have updates from Security needed until August 19th.

The South China Morning Post did not talk much about the underlying technology of the new operating system, but said it was able to run Android applications and that Huawei's engineers had "studied in detail Android and Apple iOS to learn more. " The operating system is designed to work on computers and phones.

Since then, Google has warned against the risk that Huawei will develop its own version of Android Open Source, which would not allow Google to issue software updates for Huawei phones. Earlier this month, he argued that this could pose a greater security risk than the licensed versions of Android that Google can update to avoid security breaches, which would otherwise come back to Huawei .

"As we noted earlier, Huawei has backup systems, but only in extenuating circumstances," Huawei spokesman told the South China Morning Post. "Android and Windows will always be our first choices."

CNBC contacted Huawei for additional comments, but a spokesperson was not immediately available.

Learn more about the South China Morning Post.