The Chinese multinational technology company Huawei has officially launched its self-developed operating system across devices and smartphones. The moves come as the Chinese tech giant looks to challenge the two major platforms used around the globe - Apple iOS with approx. 26% market share and Google Android OS with approx. 73% market share in May 2021.
The first glimpse of HarmonyOS was seen in 2019, after the U.S blacklisted Huawei, cutting off its access to Google’s Android operating system. This restricted Huawei to critical semiconductors and crashed its smartphone business just months after becoming the number one player globally.
“HarmonyOS is designed to provide the glue between a growing array of connected devices that Huawei is targeting. Huawei will be hoping that it can follow Apple’s lead, by having a single software platform that extends in all directions, providing a seamless experience to customers that buy into its ecosystem of products,” - Ben Wood, the Chief Analyst said.
The HarmonyOS also has its own app store called App Gallery with 540 million monthly active users worldwide, which is similar to the Play Store on Android and App Store on iOS. The new OS can work across many internet-connected devices including smartphones, laptops, TVs, wearables, and more.
The company has said that more than 300 application and service partners, 1000 hardware partners, and 500,000 developers are set to support HarmonyOS in China this year.
“Regardless of the size of the device, only one system can cover smart terminal devices with a memory as small as 128K, as large as 4GB or more, bringing consumers an ultimate full-scene interactive experience,” Wang Chenglu, President of Huawei’s consumer software business, said at a launch event. Huawei revealed that previously 300 million devices will run on HarmonyOS this year.
However, the Chinese firm still faces major challenges ahead with the reputational fallout from U.S sanctions. “There has been a palpable loss of consumer confidence in the brand as a result of the US sanctions that will be challenging to overcome as it pivots into new areas” - Ben Wood said.
