MOSCOW ¨C China¡¯s Huawei has begun talks with Russia about installing the Russian operating system (OS) Aurora on 360,000 of its tablets to conduct Russia¡¯s population census next year, two sources told Reuters.
Huawei has been seeking alternative operating systems to Google¡¯s Android OS after Washington put the world¡¯s second-largest smartphone maker on a so-called Entity List that threatens to cut off its access to the essential U.S. components and technology.
¡°This is a pilot project. We see it as the first stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices,¡± the first source told Reuters.
Huawei is in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communications, a spokeswoman for Huawei said, but did not provide any other details.
Last week, Huawei said the U.S. trade restrictions could cut its smartphone unit¡¯s revenue by about $10 billion this year.
Russia is discussing the use of Aurora OS on 360,000 Huawei tablets by August 2020.
¡°Huawei is interested in the project. It showed samples of tablets that could be used,¡± the second source said. Aurora is Russia¡¯s only OS and is not currently being used.
Huawei is also racing to develop an operating system of its own in preparation for the worst-case scenario of being stripped of essential Google Android apps.
The owner of Aurora, Russia¡¯s state telecommunications operator, Rostelecom, is the sole contractor for buying tablets to hold the population census in Russia, which has a population of 147 million, next October.
¡°Various options for collaboration with Huawei are currently being considered with participation of the Ministry of Communications... We don¡¯t disclose details yet, there is an agreement on confidentiality,¡± Rostelecom said in a written reply to a Reuters request for a comment.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Communications declined comment.
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