Huawei building own OS to ditch Android: Report

The new OS project is claimed to be its early days and involves ex-staffers from Nokia. The Information also reached out to Abigail Brody, former Apple creative director who was hired by Huawei last year as the chief user experience designer.

A mobile phone made by Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei is displayed in a store in Beijing. (AFP)

Chinese telecom and electronics giant Huawei is secretly building its new operating system (OS) for smartphones to reduce its dependency on Google's Android OS, a new report claims.

According to the report published in The Information, three people in the know of things have confirmed that Huawei is "secretly developing an alternative mobile operating system".

The new OS project is claimed to be its early days and involves ex-staffers from Nokia. The Information also reached out to Abigail Brody, former Apple creative director who was hired by Huawei last year as the chief user experience designer. Although she has declined to comment on the new OS, she said that is scheduled to meet the team in August.

Brody is also expected to introduce several changes to the company's Emotion UI which is to be built on top of Android OS. Brody without revealing the changes hinted that the new Emotion UI version releasing this fall will deal with "glaring cosmetic issues" and "pain points."

The report also claims that the new UI will look more like the iOS UI. Samsung is also working on its Tizen OS to reduce its dependence on Android and also make the OS good enough to push a differentiated status in the overcrowded smartphone market.