Huawei is looking for alternative operating systems for Android

Chinese Huawei has begun negotiations with Russia on the installation of the Aurora operating system on 360,000 of its tablets for a census in Russia next year, according to Reuters.

Huawei is looking for alternative operating systems for Google's Android operating system after Washington has ranked the world's second-largest smartphone maker on the list of so-called entities, threatening to cut off access to key components and technologies in the USA.

A source told Reuters: The census could test the use of Aurora on a larger scale, explaining that the project is pilot and is the first step in launching the Russian operating system on Huawei devices.

A spokesman for the Chinese company: Huawei is in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communications, but has not provided any other details.

Last week, Huawei raised trade restrictions imposed by the United States, saying that it could reduce the smartphone unit revenue of about $ 10 billion this year.

Russia discusses the use of Aurora OS on 360,000 Huawei tablets by August of this year.

The report said that Huawei was interested in the project and presented tablet models usable by the only operating system in Russia named (Aurora OS), which is not currently used.

Aurora OS is based on Sailfish OS, which was developed by the Finnish company Jolla and focuses more on security and privacy before being adopted by the Russian platform (Open Mobile).

In 2018, Rostelecom acquired 75% of the Open Mobile platform, establishing a direct link with the Russian government and ministries.

The Russian public telecommunications company (Rostelecom), owner of Aurora OS, is solely responsible for the purchase of tablets for the census in October in Russia, which has 147 million inhabitants.

"Various options for cooperation with Huawei are being studied with the participation of the Ministry of Communications," Rostelecom said in a written response to Reuters' request for comment, "We do not reveal details yet." There is agreement on confidentiality."

The Chinese company is developing its own operating system called (Harmony OS), dedicated at this stage to IoT devices, in anticipation of the worst possible scenario: removal of basic applications from Google for Android, in order to replace Android if necessary .