Huawei will unveil its first phone with the Hongming operating system

Huawei will unveil its new Hongming operating system at the developer conference that will begin Aug. 9 in Dongguan, China, and that should include the announcement of the first smartphone using the new system.

Huawei has tested a smartphone equipped with its Hongming operating system, which is expected to start being marketed by the end of the year, according to the Global Times and the Chinese official media.

The release of a Hongming smartphone is a milestone for Chinese Huawei, the world's second-largest maker of smartphones, as measures taken by the US government are threatening its access to Google's Android operating system.

Although the company's chairman, Lang Hu, said last week in announcing the company's profits for the first half of 2019, the company preferred to use Google's Android operating system for its own mobile devices, and stressed that Hongming was part of Huawei's "long-term strategy". The Global Times confirmed Sunday – citing unnamed sources – that there was an operating system for smart phones, Hongming was already working.

The first device can be seen with the Matt 30 Pro device later this year, often in the fourth quarter, Huawei did not comment on Monday on the Reuters report.

Huawei executives described the Hongming system as an operating system designed for Internet products. The company announced last month that HongMing's first major hardware would be its next line of HONER smart TVs.

Huawei has been at the center of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China since May, when President Donald Trump placed the company on a "list of entities" that effectively banned US suppliers from selling to the United States. society.

Trump said the sanctions would alleviate, though other details remain unclear, threatening Huawei to lose access to regular updates on Android if the policies remain in place.

However, Huawei's revenue in the first half of 2019 grew by 23%, partly due to strong domestic demand for its mobile phones.

While smartphone sales abroad have declined, shipments to China have increased 31 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of June, according to research firm Kbadls.