Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Products, will deliver a keynote address at the Huawei Developer Conference on September 10, 2020. Huawei has released the second version of its HarmonyOS operating system.
Huawei
GUANGZHOU, China. On Thursday, Huawei launched the second version of its own operating system, which will run on its smartphones for the first time next year as an alternative to Google’s Android.
Last year Huawei removed the packaging from HarmonyOS, its own operating system for different devices. This came after the company was listed as a US legal entity, a blacklist prohibiting some US companies from selling their products to the Chinese tech giant.
Google suspended business activity with Huaweiforcing the firm to release flagship smartphones no licensed version the Android operating system of an American company. This doesn’t really matter in China, where Google services like Gmail or search are blocked. But this is important in Huawei’s international markets, where consumers are accustomed to using such apps.
Although Huawei became the number one smartphone maker in the world in the second quarter, this was mainly due to the Chinese market with its huge population. while international markets saw a sharp drop…
“We might see smartphones with HarmonyOS starting next year,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business, during Thursday’s keynote speech.
In a follow-up post from CNBC, he confirmed that HarmonyOS will run on new Huawei phones in 2021.
HarmonyOS 2.0
Huawei advertises HarmonyOS as a mobile operating system that can run on several different devices. According to the company, developers only need to create one version of the application, which will be ported to multiple hardware components.
Huawei launched HarmonyOS 2.0 on Thursday and said the beta version of the operating system will be open to developers, even Huawei’s competitors, for devices such as smartwatches, TVs, and car head units from September 10th and smartphones in December.
From then on, developers will be able to experiment and develop apps for the HarmonyOS.
Brian Ma, IDC’s vice president of device research, said device makers might be interested in using HarmonyOS as a “fallback” in case they face similar bans on Google. But they don’t necessarily want to work with Huawei.
“On the other hand, they will think twice before dealing with a major rival that has competed so aggressively with them in China over the past year. I think they will explore their options, but they will not do so until there is more clarity about how US policy might change next year, ”Ma told CNBC via email.
Question marks abroad
The two largest mobile operating systems today – Google Android and Apple iOS – have been successful because millions of developers create apps for their app stores.
Huawei is working to build a high-quality application base. By opening HarmonyOS to more devices, Huawei hopes to get the operating system on as many devices as possible and increase the number of users. This will make building applications more attractive to developers. If Huawei ends up using HarmonyOS on its own smartphone, it will need the most powerful operating system possible.
The Chinese giant has its own app store and other services like maps called Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). HMS is similar to Google Mobile Services and offers developer kits that you can use to integrate things like location services into applications.
Huawei said it has 96,000 apps integrated with HMS, up from 60,000 in May when it last publicly posted such a figure. The company also has 1.8 million developers, up from 1.4 million in May.
Huawei’s Yu introduced HarmonyOS as a way for Chinese developers to deliver their apps to overseas consumers, possibly hinting that Huawei wants to bring the operating system to the global market. Meanwhile, Yu said he hopes HarmonyOS will help international developers serve Chinese consumers.
“We would like to become a bridge between them,” Yu said.
One of the main questions is how well HarmonyOS will perform overseas when it launches on Huawei smartphones.
Experts have previously questioned the potential success of HarmonyOS in international markets, given the fact that it does not have core apps like Spotify or Netflix, and it is unlikely that Google will host its own apps in Huawei’s software.
Meanwhile, Huawei is facing challenges that go beyond software. United States amended rule which requires foreign chipmakers using US-made component manufacturing equipment to obtain a license in Washington before they can sell semiconductors to Huawei. it cut off huawei from its main chip maker, TSMC, a move that could have huge implications for its ability to manufacture smartphones and other devices. Huawei also has very few alternatives…