Two years after Huawei was added to the US entity list , which banned the Chinese tech giant from accessing US technologies, including key chipsets and Android developer services from Google, an alternative smartphone operating system has been officially unveiled. Huawei's HarmonyOS.
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Huawei began rolling out its own HarmonyOS operating system for smartphones on Wednesday. The company began working on the operating system in 2016 and began allowing developers to create HarmonyOS-compatible apps for tablets, electric vehicles and smartwatches last September. The company's flagship devices, such as the Huawei Mate 40, can already use HarmonyOS, which will gradually roll out to more affordable smartphone models in the coming quarters.
According to Huawei, HarmonyOS is not intended to replace Android or iOS. Instead, its application is more extensive, powering not only phones and tablets, but a large number of smart devices. To this end, Huawei is trying to attract home appliance and hardware manufacturers to join its ecosystem.
Currently, more than 500,000 developers are building apps based on HarmonyOS. It's unclear whether Google, Facebook, and other mainstream apps in the West will run on HarmonyOS versions.
However, some Chinese tech companies may be in a position to join forces with Huawei. Smartphone maker Meizu hinted on its Weibo account that its smart devices might adopt HarmonyOS. On the other hand, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are likely to be more reluctant to embrace a rival’s operating system.
Huawei's goal is to connect all devices running HarmonyOS to a single control panel. A game played on a phone can continue seamlessly on a tablet. A smart blender can customize a drink based on health data collected from a user's smart watch.
Devices not already on HarmonyOS can also “talk” to Huawei devices with a simple plug-in. Photos from a Windows laptop can be saved directly to a Huawei phone if the computer has the HarmonyOS plug-in installed.
Huawei has denied claims that HarmonyOS is a derivative of Android, saying that there is not a single line of code that is identical to Android. A Huawei spokesperson declined to say whether the operating system is based on Linux.
Several tech companies have tried to introduce their own mobile operating systems, without success. Alibaba created AliOS based on Linux but stopped updating it a long time ago. Samsung is flirting with its own Tizen, but the operating system is limited to powering a few Internet of Things devices, such as smart TVs.
See also: Samsung released the June 2021 security update, before Google
Huawei may be having better luck than its predecessors. It remains one of China's biggest smartphone brands, despite having some problems after the US government banned it from working with major chip.
See also: America: Expands restrictions on Huawei
HarmonyOS can also be considered an alternative solution for developers who are dissatisfied with Android.
Source: TechCrunch
