An alternative mobile operating environment?
Walking the wire: we discuss risks and benefits involved for the EU should it embark on developing a new smartphone operating system.
Speakers
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama
Director, ECIPE,
Andreas Zimmer
Head of Ecosystem Strategy for Europe, Huawei,
Renato Nazzini
Partner, LMS Legal LLP,
Peter Stuckmann
Head of Unit, Future Connectivity Systems, European Commission, DG CONNECT,
livestream on 29 april
Ask questions during the event through using #mobile.
Software for smartphones and tablets has largely converged into two families or ecosystems, one based on Google's Android, the other on Apple’s iOS. Both firms are based in the USA. The Chinese equipment maker Huawei has announced that it wants to work with European partners to create a variant of the Android ecosystem that would be free from US intellectual property, to be developed by means of cooperative arrangements in Europe. This is a direct response to US export restrictions imposed in 2019 that limit Huawei in its ability to use current proprietary versions of the Android ecosystem.
At this event, we will explore and critically assess this initiative. Under which circumstances could this be beneficial for European consumers or businesses? What are the opportunities and threats associated with such collaboration? What are the conditions to be met for a potential "European" operating environment for mobile devices to be truly open-source, accessible, respectful of privacy and secure?