Huawei supports plans for European alternative to Android and iOS
Huawei supports the idea of a ‘European smart device ecosystem’ and has already had discussions with European tech companies about the idea. That would give Huawei an alternative to the American Android and give Europe more digital sovereignty.
Huawei CEO Eric Xu states that in an interview with the German Handelsblatt. He will not let go of which companies Huawei has sat down to date, but there have already been several. Xu thinks more will be known by the end of this year or early next year.
According to the CEO, Huawei would already use a European ecosystem for smart devices if it was there at all. If there is such a system, Huawei hopes that open source operating systems such as Android and its own HarmonyOS will be looked at. The operating system should also be open to American applications such as YouTube and Netflix. With an intermediate step, that would give Huawei the opportunity to deliver devices with the popular American services.
Huawei is on the US entity list along with a lot of related companies, which means that trade with those companies is restricted. This means, for example, that Huawei is not allowed to provide Google services on its smartphones, according to Google itself. Android itself can be used because it is open source. The Chinese tech giant expects that despite the trade war between the two countries, the loss of turnover will not be too bad. Also in the interview with the German newspaper, Xu points out that it can “manufacture completely without American components”.
Europe is trying to make itself a bigger, more independent player in the tech world on several fronts. For example, parties are pushing for an EU tax on large tech companies, the European Union is investing in supercomputers to penetrate the top 5, there are plans to make the offer of Netflix and Amazon Prime in Europe for a larger share of European a multi-billion dollar fund has been set up to support European competitors of Google, Apple and Facebook.