According toHuawei Technologies, it is already able to replace Google's Android system in its smartphones with its own software. The Chinese smartphone provider and network supplier presented its operating system called Harmony OS on Friday, which could also run in computers, tablets, smartwatches and other networked technology.

For Huawei, its own system could be a lifesaver: The company is threatened with losing access to Android because it has been blacklisted by US President Donald Trump, citing security concerns. The Android block was initially suspended until the end of August - it remains to be seen what will happen after that.

The development could break up the current operating system duopoly of Android from Google and iOS from Apple in the smartphone market. Huawei made it clear that Harmony OS is to become a fully-fledged alternative to Android. "We want to establish a global operating system that is not only used by Huawei," said Huawei manager Richard Yu.

The software will therefore be open-source and accessible to all, just like the Google system. At the time, this had spurred the rise of Android to become the most widely used smartphone system with a market share of more than 80 percent. Most smartphones in China also run Android - albeit without Google services, unlike in the West.

For the time being, however, Huawei's priority is to use Android so as not to split up the ecosystem of apps and other services, Yu assured at the company's in-house developer conference. "But if we no longer have access to it in the future, we can switch to Harmony OS immediately," said Yu. And Huawei could do this in just a few days. "Switching from Android to Huawei OS is not that difficult. It's actually very easy."

China is the largest smartphone market in the world - and the US action against Huawei had also triggered a wave of patriotism in the choice of technology against the backdrop of the trade conflict between the two countries. It is therefore conceivable that other Chinese smartphone providers will also switch to a domestic operating system. Huawei is the world's number two in smartphone sales after Samsung, thanks in part to its strong position in its home market.

Operating system challenge

However, establishing a new operating system is an extreme challenge. The main difficulty lies in attracting enough app developers for the new platform. Even the software giant Microsoft has failed in the past to make its Windows operating system successful for smartphones. App developers focused on iOS and Android. Other alternatives such as Firefox OS, webOS from Palm/HP or the Blackberry system were pushed out of the market.

An additional problem for Huawei in the West would also be the loss of access to pre-installed Google services on the smartphones that are popular in the USA and Europe. In this country, Android devices are almost always sold with apps such as Google Maps or Gmail.

Harmony OS is also a new beginning in that, unlike most of today's platforms, it is not based on operating systems such as Unix or Linux, emphasized Huawei. The company developed it with the vision that the software on the device itself can be relatively lean, while a large part of the work is transferred to data centers via fast networks. Harmony OS truly represents the next generation of operating systems "for all scenarios", Yu enthused.

However, one of the things Huawei wants to attract app developers is the fact that the Harmony operating system can run on a wide range of devices and supports various programming languages. According to Yu, the development of Harmony began two years ago. According to media reports, the system was initially intended for networked technology in the so-called Internet of Things.

Huawei was blacklisted by Trump in mid-May, citing security concerns. This largely blocked the company's access to technology from US companies and the American market. The prospect of Huawei smartphones no longer receiving updates to Google's Android operating system also hampered sales in Europe at times - even if sales have largely recovered in the meantime, according to the company.