Russia offers China operating system for Huawei
Russian officials have suggested that the Chinese cellphone company Huawei replace Google’s Android OS with the Aurora OS developed in Russia, reports the Bell citing two informed sources.
The idea was brought up shortly before the start of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in a meeting between Huawei Chief Executive Director Guo Ping and Russian Minister of Digital Development and Communications Konstantin Noskov, and was later discussed at meetings between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
The Russian OS, based on the Finnish Sailfish OS, could be installed on Huawei devices instead of Google’s Android, which the Chinese company lost access to after it was blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce.
“China is already testing devices with preinstalled Aurora,” claimed one of The Bell’s sources.
In addition, Huawei has been invited to localize part of its production in Russia, including the production of chips and software.
This is about more than just installing a Russian OS, it is about the entire ecosystem based on Aurora, said a source familiar with the details of the meeting between Noskov and Guo Ping. It includes social networks, search engines and antivirus programs, he noted.
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development and Communications could neither confirm nor deny this information, noting only that effort is constantly being made to promote Russian producers on foreign markets. Huawei also declined to comment. Rostelecom, which owns Aurora, had not heard about the Huawei initiative, but said that it is “willing to collaborate with all developers of mobile solutions”.