Credit：Huawei
Huawei officially launched HarmonyOS NEXT at an event in Shenzhen, where the company is based, on Tuesday. The launch marks HarmonyOS, first rolled out in August 2019 as an open-source OS designed for various devices and scenarios, has evolved to reach its fifth iterationis. The latest HarmonyOS version is China’s first homegrown mobile OS and the third OS in the world, next to Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google’s Andriod.
HarmonyOS NEXT is Huawei’s biggest upgrade of the operating system, said Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG), at the event. Unlike previous HarmonyOS version that were partially built on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), HarmonyOS NEXT is truly independent from Android and Apple's iOS, with its own operating kernel, programming language, AI framework and other features that were developed without using the Linux kernel or Android open-source code, .
"HarmonyOS NEXT provides a new option and market space for the development of related industries around the world," he said, hailing it as an open, secure and efficient operating system.
Huawei has launched beta testing of HarmonyOS NEXT for developers in June and unveiled the beta version of the system for consumers in August. The company opened public beta testing for HarmonyOS NEXT on October 8, with the first batch of test devices including two smartphone series-- Huawei Mate X5 and Mate 60 series and the 13.2-inch tablet Huawei MatePad Pro series. The Chinese tech giant Tuesday announced developments of the HarmonyOS community ad ecosystem.
Since September 25 last year, more than 15,000 applications and meta-services covering 18 industries have been available for use on HarmonyOS, and more than 38 million enterprises across China have the access to general office apps. HarmonyOS NEXT provides users easier access to the new system and reduce their cost. It has improved the fluency by 30%, and many apps are iteratively updated once a day.
Currently, there are more than 1 billion devices supporting HarmonyOS and 6.75 million registered developers, with more than 110 million lines of code built for the system. Huawei has conducted cooperation with more than 300 universities across China to accelerate technology research and development and iteration.
Huawei also made nova 13 series smartphone powered by Harmony OS 4.2 official in China on Tuesday. The series support satellite connectivity but only in mainland China. The base version nova 13 comes with a 6.7-inch OLED screen and starts RMB2,699 (US$378). Starting RMB3,699, the bigger version nova 13 Pro has a 6.76-inch OLED panel.
The rollout of HarmonyOS NEXT is another milestone for Huawei since Washington put it on the "Entity List" in 2019, barring it from doing business with U.S. firms including Google, which provides Android, the state news agency Xinhua said.
HarmonyOS NEXT is of great significance to China's operating system industry, which has long been dominated by foreign companies, commented Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association. Huawei's progress in developing in-house operating system and its comeback to the 5G smartphone industry coincide with a period when AI smartphones are expected to trigger a new round of growth, Xiang said.
A quarterly note from Counterpoint Research in June showed HarmonyOS achieved a milestone in the beginning of this year. With a market share of 17% for the first quarter of the year, Harmony OS overtook iOS in China for the first time as the country’s customers lined up to buy Huawei's flagship offerings, according to the note. Per the note, share of Harmony OS rose to 17%, more than doubling a year ago, while iOS’s share declined 4 points year-over-year (YoY) to 16%.
Counterpoint Research note said Harmony OS continued to grow in Q1 2024, reaching a 4% share globally. Apple’s iOS share declined by 1% YoY owing to seasonality and lower sales in China, its second-largest market. The global share declined from 20% in Q1 2023 to 16% in Q1 2024. This also marked the first Q1 decline for iOS in China since Q1 2019, primarily driven by Huawei's 5G smartphone launches competing directly with Apple.
