Huawei is moving toward discontinuing support for Android and adopting its own OS. The new Huawei OS – HarmonyOS NEXT – is set to debut next week.
HarmonyOS has been at the core of Huawei’s devices for some time. This OS started out as just another Android skin pretending to be different from other Android skins. This change was made with the idea that Huawei would eventually ditch Android altogether, opting to introduce a proprietary OS on its devices that supports just as many apps.
Since then, Huawei has been working toward the goal of becoming completely self-reliant. The company recently announced that HarmonyOS NEXT supports 10,000 apps, covering “99.9% of consumers’ screen time needs.”
New information indicates that Huawei is finally ready to debut HarmonyOS NEXT and start introducing it to phones currently on the market (via South China Morning Post). Again, this is done in an effort to completely deprecate Android. The new system does not support Android apps, so the company is trying to support the apps that users need.
HarmonyOS was shown to have accounted for 17% of China’s smartphone market in Q1 2024. This equates to a significant number of devices that could potentially move away from Android in a market dominated by Android or iOS.
HarmonyOS NEXT is scheduled to begin rolling out to Huawei devices next week. The OS will be first available on the Mate 60, Mate X5, and MatePad Pro on October 15th. There is no indication that the company’s new trifold smartphone Mate XT will receive an update.
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