Licensed Huawei builds a new ecosystem around Android-free experience and officially launches HarmonyOS Next for smartphones and tablets
Huawei on Tuesday launched HarmonyOS Next, the next generation of its operating system that completely breaks ties with Android, with ambitions of turning it into a major desktop platform as well.
Starting Tuesday, the platform will be available on Huawei’s flagship smartphone Mate 60 series, Mate X5 foldable smartphone, and MatePad Pro 13.2-inch tablet.
HarmonyOS Next was made available to developers in January, and the company says it has already developed 10,000 applications and native services.
Baidu, JD.com, Meituan and Tencent are among the prominent Chinese technology companies that have pledged to support the OS, which has grown in popularity on a wave of patriotic enthusiasm.
Domestic platform
“We have covered more than 10 years of overseas OS ecosystem development in just one year,” Richard Yu Chendong, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said at an event in Shanghai last month.
However, the Nikkei Shimbun reported last month that availability of prominent apps from other platforms remains spotty, and many of the apps currently available are in preview versions.
Huawei released the original HarmonyOS in August 2019 after the company was registered on the US Entity List. The list blocked access to U.S. products and services without a government license, including access to Android apps and services such as the Play Store.
The company has continued to support the use of Android apps on its phones, while continuing to access the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and directing users to its app store and HarmonyOS apps.
Last year, the use of HarmonyOS in the country skyrocketed following the launch of the popular Mate 60 series of smartphones.
It accounted for 17% of the market in the first three months of this year, more than double the same period last year, and became the second most popular platform in the country.
Desktop OS
According to a June report from Counterpoint, it leads Apple’s iOS (16%), but is far behind Android, which had a 68% share during the same period.
Huawei announced in September that it would adopt HarmonyOS as its primary PC operating system.
Yu said the company’s next-generation PCs will discontinue Windows in favor of HarmonyOS Next.
Huawei accounts for about 10% of China’s annual PC sales of 40 million units, lagging behind world leaders Lenovo and HP.
