GUANGZHOU, China – In mid-2019, Huawei launched its own operating system – HarmonyOS – in response to US actions that interrupted it from Google software.
It was the most ambitious push of the Chinese technology giant’s mobile software, one he hoped would help the mobile phone business survive.
On Monday, Huawei announced that HarmonyOS will start launching on its smartphones in April. Huawei phone users could download it as an update.
A spokesman confirmed to CNBC that users outside China will also be able to download it. The company’s new Mate X2 foldable device, launched on Monday, would be one of the first to receive HarmonyOS with other phones.
In 2019, Huawei was blacklisted from the US, known as the Entity List, which restricted US companies from exporting technology to the Chinese company. As a result, Google severed ties with Huawei. This meant that Huawei could not use Google Android licensed on its smartphones. It’s no big deal in China, where Google apps like Gmail are blocked. But in overseas markets, where Android is the most popular operating system, it was a big blow.
That move by the Trump administration, combined with sanctions to disrupt Huawei’s critical supply of chips, has affected the Chinese telecommunications company’s smartphone sales.
Huawei will have to find a source of chip supply for its smartphones. But HarmonyOS is the other “extremely important” part of ensuring the survival of the Huawei smartphone business, according to Nicole Peng, an analyst at Canalys.
HarmonyOS development
Huawei is promoting HarmonyOS as an operating system that can run on all devices from smartphones to TVs. In September, it released the second version of HarmonyOS and called on developers to create applications for the platform.
And for international users, Huawei has redesigned the interface for its app store known as AppGallery and improved navigation features.
A guest holds her phone displaying a photo taken during Huawei’s press conference that unveiled its new HarmonyOS operating system in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on August 9, 2019.
Fred Dufour | AFP | Getty Images
“Search integrated into AppGallery will help a lot in helping people discover apps,” Peng said.
Huawei will also push the upgrade to existing users of its devices, which should contribute to the use of the operating system abroad.
Currently, Huawei’s AppGallery has over 530 million monthly active users.
The challenges of future smartphones
Applications are essential for mobile operating systems. Apple iOS and Google Android are the two most dominant operating systems, as they have millions of developers making applications for their respective platforms.
Huawei has a suite of applications such as mapping and a browser under a banner called Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). HMS is similar to Google Mobile services and offers developer kits that can be used to integrate things like application location services. HMS has 2.3 million registered developers globally.
And in China, it is able to bring popular applications on board.
However, in international markets, Huawei may face some challenges. For example, its app store lacks important names, such as Facebook or Google, which are important to overseas users.
“If Huawei wants to be successful in selling phones abroad, then it needs the right apps, which are unlikely to reach HarmonyOS. So regaining access to Google Mobile services is essential if it wants to grow its international business. “Bryan Ma,” said vice president of device research at IDC.
With Google Android and iOS dominating outside of China, Huawei will also have the steep task of convincing users to pass.
“In terms of challenges, it’s still in areas … (whether) the product will be able to be accepted by heavy users using, for example, Google applications and Google services,” said Peng of Canalys.
Meanwhile, Huawei also no longer has the key consumables to make the phones in the future, due to the fact that the US is heading to interrupt it from chips. Huawei’s Mate X2 uses Huawei’s Kirin 9000 processor. Richard Yu, CEO of the consumer business, said the company has enough production capacity for the foldable phone even after warning last year that supplies could run out.
This, along with the uncertainty of success with the operating system, is a major challenge facing Huawei.
“Huawei could continue to lead the local Chinese market without such concerns (regarding HarmonyOS applications), but there is a much bigger problem in that it is struggling to get components in the first place,” Ma said.