Over 10 million upgrades to HarmonyOS in a week

More than 10 million users have upgraded to Huawei's HarmonyOS system in one week after its official debut, fuelling market expectations for the new operating system and related shares.

HarmonyOS, or Hongmeng in Chinese, is an operating system designed for various devices and scenarios. 

Huawei has a target of making HarmonyOS cover 300 million devices by 2021.

On investment platform Xueqiu, a HarmonyOS index has been founded by investors and analysts to track shares related to Huawei or HarmonyOS. It closed a 1,359.59 on Thursday, a 36-percent jump in a week. 

Shenzhen-listed Hoperun Information Technology, a Jiangsu-based software vendor, jumped by the 20-percent daily cap on Thursday to close at 35.2 yuan (US$5.5), a 67-percent increase from a week ago.

IT distributor and service provider Digital China, a Huawei partner, jumped by the 10-percent daily cap to close at 19.56 yuan. Joyoung, one of the first batch of home appliance makers to support HarmonyOS, rose 4.16 percent to close at 36.59 yuan.

But analysts warned of risks of the heated market and booming share price because it still needs time to see whether those firms and partners can really benefit or cash in through HarmonyOS. 

"I just doubt it. If they can't play well in Android, why is it so sure they can win (market shares or profit) on HarmonyOS?" a Xueqiu user said. 

The new system will help Huawei grow in spite of strict US sanctions which may forbid use of Google's Android system and its tools. 

The first batch of products supporting HarmonyOS include the Huawei Mate series from Mate 40, Mate 30 to Mate X2, as well as P40 and Nova 8 models, along with the Huawei Watch 3 and devices including monitors, tablets and headphones. More older devices and third-party gadgets will support HarmonyOS later, Huawei said.

Besides device makers and software vendors, some finance firms such as banks and securities firms announced plans to support HarmonyOS in applications and related services.

Ti Gong