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Huawei's MD for the Middle East has revealed a possible date for Huawei's long-rumoured mobile operating system.
Speaking to TechRadar, Alaa Elshimy, managing director and vice president of Huawei Enterprise Business Group Middle East seemingly confirmed that the Chinese technology company would be opting to launch their own mobile operating system.
As per previous reports, this new OS would be launched as a direct consequence of Huawei's recent blacklisting by the United States and the loss of the company's Android license.
Some reports say it may be potentially branded as Ark OS.
"Huawei knew this was coming and was preparing. The OS was ready in January 2018 and this was our Plan B," Elshimy told TechRadar.
More than that, the report claims that Elshimy confirmed that the proprietary mobile OS will be rolling out globally to Huawei customers in a matter of weeks.
"We did not want to bring the OS to the market as we had a strong relationship with Google and others and did not want to ruin the relationship. Now, we are rolling it out next month."
As of yet, Huawei has yet to officially confirm or deny the claim. However, assuming the report is accurate and Huawei is indeed about to launch the first real non-Apple competitor to Android, it could represent a seismic shift for the smartphone landscape.
Stay tuned for more as this story develops.
PC World Australia has reached out to Huawei for comment.
In a statement given to PC World Australia, we were told "this is an internet rumour. Regardless, thanks for your support and interest. Any information to this effect would be released through official channels."
Since publication, TechRadar has also updated their story and chalked Elshimy's comments down to 'internal confusion'.
TechRadar now say they've "received confirmation from Huawei that there has been some confusion internally, and the launch date of the new Android-replacing operating system, codenamed HongMeng, will not be launching in June this year."
